Mark Jeffers confident things are coming together after first stoppage win

Mark Jeffers is confident he'll be mixing it with the best in Britain sooner rather than later.
Mark JeffersMark Jeffers
Mark Jeffers

The Eccleston middleweight moved to 7-0 as a professional with his first stoppage win at the Macron Stadium in Bolton on Saturday night.

The 20-year-old, trained by Michael and Dave Jennings in Coppull, didn’t need long to see off Estonian Pjotr Filatov, knocking him down in both the first and second rounds before the fight was waved off by referee John Latham.

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“I feel stronger and fitter all the time in the gym,” said Jeffers.

Mark JeffersMark Jeffers
Mark Jeffers

“I’m doing six and eight rounds in the gym easily.

“Mick and Dave know what is best for me but I don’t think I can be too far away from the best in Britain at the moment.

“We’ll see what happens.”

It was a frustrating night for the Jennings Gym fighter who was pencilled in as a ‘live float’ on the schedule, meaning he could have been dropped in at any time when there was a gap to fill on the Channel 5 broadcast.

That didn’t happen though meaning Jeffers actually went on as the TV cameras were being turned off after Hughie Fury had won the British heavyweight title from Sam Sexton.

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“I arrived at 5.30pm thinking I was going to be on at seven or eight,” he said.

“Then it ended up being 11 which was a bit of a farce but it’s boxing and you’ve got to stay professional and that’s what I did, putting on my best performance so far.

“I wanted to prove a point.

“They put me on last but I wanted to prove that I was the best fighter on the show.”

His fans hung around though making a good noise as Jeffers marched through Filatov in some style.

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“It was unbelievable seeing so many people come out from Eccleston and all around Chorley,” said the former Chorley ABC youngster.

“My dad’s brother came over from Northern Ireland as well and the support was just massive.

“I just want to thank them all. Doing this wouldn’t be possible without them.

“The fans had a frustrating night as well. They deserved the knockout and that’s what they got.”

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Now the Northern Ireland-born fighter wants to remain active and kick on between now and the end of the year.

“I had a little injury in the run up but I seem to have come through fine,” said Jeffers

“I’ll see how they are but my hands feel pretty good.

“I’ll get in the gym next week and see what Mick and Dave want but it’s about keeping busy.

“I’ve been working on trying to show in fights what I can do in the gym and in six fights before this I hadn’t shown anyone how good I actually am.

“We knew I could hit hard but I just wasn’t planting my feet, wasn’t doing what Mick and Dave wanted me to do.

“But I’ve got bigger and stronger and there were massive improvements I thought.”

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