whom would you call to fight of any era ? asks Tony Jeffries

“IF you could fight any fighter of any era, who would it be?” asks Tony Jeffries.

This is a question all fighters get asked – normally when doing interviews with journos who don’t really know boxing and are waiting for the answer to be the likes of Muhammed Ali, Joe Louis, Mike Tyson etc.

Hell no! My answer would always be the worst fighter that I would get the most money for. I was in boxing to earn money, not fight someone like Ali and have my head punched in!

I remember my favorite bout was against a guy called Roy Meissner from Germany. I fought in Sunderland in my second pro fight and I sold the place out.

At the time, Roy had had around 16 fights, winning approximately four. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, athough this may sound it, but he was the worst opponent I ever faced. I was flying around the world to fight absolute monsters before I turned pro. I fought 56 times for England and Great Britain, fighting only champions from different countries.

Then I came up against this guy live on Sky Sports. I was paid £30,000 plus sponsorships and I stopped him in the second round after knocking him down  about five times. He did not land a punch on me, I even dropped him with a punch to the shoulder.

This was my favourite fight and is my dream opponent, not Joe Frazier.

The only bad thing about this is that it’s not great for the fans who pay good money and want to see a good scrap. However, in boxing it’s about earning as much as you can, taking as little punishment as possible and getting out with a healthy brain.