Jay Jay Tonks a former K1/Kickboxer from Walsall made his professional boxing debut last week (28.4.23) at the Hangar Events Venue in Wolverhampton. The switch hitting five foot ten orthodox light heavyweight has won multiple titles in Kickboxing and K1 claiming English, British, five nations, European and World titles. Tonks boxes out of Trojan martial arts in Brownhills and is trained by Gavin Burrows who also trained female WBC champion Rachel Ball. Tonks had this to say about his trainer, he said “Gavin is like a brother to me he has helped me a lot in my career”.
Jay Jay who has been training now for around fifteen year took up combat sports for self defence reasons but soon became obsessed with his chosen sport.
We the talked about who his favourite fighter was and why, Jay Jay told me “My favourite fighters are Joe Calzaghe, Canelo and Golovkin all for different reasons. I loved Joes work rate and his ability to fight with any style and break them down. Canelo’s slickness and Triple G’s because he just hunts them down, he has that killer instant. I kind of feel I need that style hunt them down and unleash inside work that’s where I like my fights. I love Mexican style meet in the middle and bang”.
We then talked about his hardest fight which happened to be in his Kickboxing/K1 Career. He told me “My hardest fight 100% is a French lad named Akim Chayem, we fought for a 5 nations title we hit each other with everything we both had and both of us got hurt, we both got bashed up I loved it”.
Jay Jay finished by saying “I love a tear up but you’ve got to bring some heavy hands if your going to hit me on the jaw and put me down”.
Dexter’s Thoughts
I had the privilege of watching his debut at the Hangar Event Venue last week and was thoroughly entertained by his performance. The Walsall fight does look a bit raw but he has all the attributes to do well in his new chosen sport. He has adopted the Mexican come forward high tempo fighting style that is very entertaining to watch and has a great coach in Gavin Burrows to make the transition from Kickboxing to the noble art. Tonks brought a lot of supporters with him and they made loads of noise as he continued with his relentless pressure fighting and he won the four round contests convincingly 40 to 37. I had it 39 to 37 as in I think it was the third his opponent showed how to over come that marauding Mexican style with movement a very good jab. But his opponent could only keep that going for one round as he was a clear winner, winning in the other three. I can see Tonks doing well and with his big support behind him getting some big fights down the road, but the light heavyweight division is a very tough one domestically at the moment but if he continues to learn his craft he could do well. I really look forward to seeing him in ring again very soon, he has an awful lot of potential.