Ashley Theophane
Light Welterweight
Kilburn
25-3-1
HOODSTAR makes a splash in London
by Stacy Warren
Saturday 6th December was a night of Boxing Worldwide. Oscar De La Hoya vs Manny Pacquiao was in Las Vegas, then over in Britain Amir Khan made his return from getting KO'd in 1 round against Oisin Fagan. Carl Froch fought in Nottingham against Jean Pascal. Three mega fights but Ashley Theophane was left to top the bill in Britain's home of Boxing. York Hall, Bethnal Green.
Light Welterweight Theophane was due to fight Badru "Mr Crush" Lusambya, who has 18 wins with 16 KOs. That fell through mid week so Middleweight Matt Scriven stepped in. Scriven who is in the Security forces in Iraq came to bomb Theophane out.
Swinging wild left and right hooks. Ashley's defence was superb and so was his ring generalship which he used along with his speed, skills and reflexes to confuse and frustrate the much bigger man.
Manny Pacquiao on the same night fought a much bigger opponent and came through victorious, and Theophane did the same thing against a lower class of opponent one must say but never the less Scriven campaigns at 3 weight divisions above Theophane. His last fight was at 161lbs just 2 weeks ago.
Theophane was given a big welcome home applause by the knowledgeable York Hall crowd, who chanted like their hero was back home.
Theophane, whose jab is truly World Class could not miss Scriven's face and pounded away with 3 and 4 jab combinations while mixing down to the body. Watching Theophane you think why is this kid not on British TV, as he is clearly one of Britain's most talented boxers around now.
Ashley even gave his fans a party trick in the 6th round. Touching the outside of his boot with his right hand then planted that same right hand to Matt Scriven's face with a follow up left hook to Scriven's Body. Afterwards I asked Theophane how he came up with that move and he said Pernell Whitaker used to do it.
Afterwards I asked Ashley if he was still down or frustrated that his Super fight with former Undisputed King Zab "Super" Judah never happened and if topping the bill on the Left Jab promotion was an anti-climax for the end of his year. "Basically when the Judah fight fell through because Zab couldn't find his balls, I contacted Miranda Carter, and asked if I could be on her show. She was nice enough to let me, so here I am. Fights fall through all the time. You just have to keep focused and keep moving. I have faith in my ability so I am very sure the big fights Stateside I crave will happen. Most of the Champions around now are in their 30's so I am progressing and improving every year. My time will come."
Ashley Theophane's co-trainer Peter Swinney commented afterwards that it was Ashley's best performance with him and trainer Johnny Eames since Ashley joined them at the TKO Gym in January 2006. Cutman Jimmy Tibbs said it was a pleasure to be in the corner for the fight and that Ashley is due for big things.
Ashley "Treasure" Theophane had spent 7 weeks in the US. Sparring with WBA NO.3 Dmitriy Salita for 5 weeks up in training camp in the Pocono's Mountain then mixing it up with WBC NO.4 Francisco "El Gato" Figueroa then finishing off with a week in Los Angeles at Freddy Roach's Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, where he sparred 2 of Roach's boys. WBC NO.3 Ajose Olusegun helped Theophane with his last week of sparring for his fight and Ashley showed the World Class sparring helped with a World Class performance.
How many British Fighters get the top quality training Theophane gets. Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe and now Amir Khan. Ashley may be lesser known than the previous three. But he has quality to reach World Championship heights.
Read a November 2008 interview with Ashley at fighthype.com
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