Olympic boxer Tony Jeffries named as ambassador for Sunderland's Fans Museum

Wearside boxing star Tony Jeffries has been named as a new ambassador to Sunderland's Fans Museum.
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The Olympic bronze medallist retired from boxing in 2012 and now lives in Los Angeles where he runs two gyms. He also helps ex-boxers in their lives outside the sport, and has done this around the USA, Australia and more recently in Sheffield.

Now he is throwing his light-heavyweight behind the North Bridge Street museum.

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The museum is mainly concerned with Sunderland AFC, but does much more. It opened on June 6 to coincide with the Spice Girls concert and had a temporary display of band artefacts to mark the event.

Fans Museum founder Michael Ganley welcomes Olympic boxing medallist Tony Jeffries as an ambassador, along with volunteers and Sunderland FA Cup winning captain Bobby Kerr.Fans Museum founder Michael Ganley welcomes Olympic boxing medallist Tony Jeffries as an ambassador, along with volunteers and Sunderland FA Cup winning captain Bobby Kerr.
Fans Museum founder Michael Ganley welcomes Olympic boxing medallist Tony Jeffries as an ambassador, along with volunteers and Sunderland FA Cup winning captain Bobby Kerr.

It also serves the local community with its charity work. It will soon open a boxing section for a limited time and will raise funds for local boxing clubs.

The museum’s founder, Michael Ganley, is delighted to have Tony on board. The Olympian becomes the museum’s second ambassador, after SAFC goal scoring legend Kevin Phillips.

Michael said: “We’re pleased to announce that Tony Jeffries is to be an ambassador for the museum. He’s going to start our little boxing project.

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“We’re not just here for football. We support a real mix; from autism charities, to prostate cancer, to our mining heritage.

Fans Museum founder Michael Ganley welcomes Olympic boxing medallist Tony Jeffries as an ambassador.Fans Museum founder Michael Ganley welcomes Olympic boxing medallist Tony Jeffries as an ambassador.
Fans Museum founder Michael Ganley welcomes Olympic boxing medallist Tony Jeffries as an ambassador.

“With that in mind we’re going to be opening our doors to the boxing world. Boxing has always been massive in Sunderland. We want to do an exhibition here and we’re going to include lots of local boxing clubs.

”We’re asking local boxers to put items on display. Then we want to have a few boxing talk-ins to raise money for the clubs. We’ll announce names later.

Tony is glad to help and said: “I’m here to support the Fans Museum. I think it’s great what Michael’s doing.

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“It’s great to see how much it’s grown. It’s inspiring to see just how passionate Michael is and how it’s branched out into other things from football. It’s really good for the city.

“I only get back to Sunderland once a year. But I’ll help in any way I can. I live on the other side of the world now, but whatever Michael wants, I’ll help when I can.”