UNTIL he heard the jukebox at The Castle Tavern in East Dulwich, Mickey Helliet didn’t have much hope for his new heavyweight.
Once the busiest manager and promoter in the country, with 100 fighters on his books and around 20 shows a year, Helliet decided to slow down after Covid and the birth of his son, Max.
“I used to manage everyone who rang me,” says Helliet, whose own plans to turn professional after a successful amateur career were ended by a medical query.
“I didn’t want to do that anymore.
“I had [former English super-middleweight champion] Darryll Williams with [coach] David [John] and one day David rang me up and said: “I’ve got someone for you.’
“I wasn’t that interested anymore, but thought he might be an ex-amateur international.
“Then David told me he had lost two of his three amateurs. I said to him: ‘That’s not what I’m looking for!’”
John convinced Helliet he should have a look at 6ft 6ins heavyweight Moses Jolly from Swansea, Wales.
“We were standing outside this pub in East Dulwich,” says Helliet, “and some music started drifting through the doors. Moses started dancing and I thought: ‘He’s got rhythm. Maybe we’ve got a chance after all.’”
Jolly says: “I love dancing. I’m into all sorts of music.
“My mum would play classical music before I went to sleep, and when I was 15 or 16 [years old] I used to create music. I made hip-hop [songs] with my friends.”
There was a time when it appeared Jolly might make a better musician than a fighter.
“My brothers were going to the gym and I was getting into trouble too often,” remembers a 29-year-old Jolly, 10-0, 7 KOs, who wants to step up to championship class this year.
“I got arrested when I was 16 years old. I was at the [police] station and my mum was upset.
“I saw her and thought I had to do something or forever see my mum upset by my decisions.
“I needed to make a change, and found that I enjoy martial arts. I did judo and Muay Thai, but they also did boxing in the same gym.
“Once I started boxing, that was it, I dropped everything else.
“I’d watch boxing all the time – fighters like Archie Moore, Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson – and I would walk down the road shadowboxing.”
For all his enthusiasm, Jolly lost his first two amateur bouts.
“My first fight was a proper scrap,” he remembers. “We went toe-to-toe and there was blood from both of us.
“Everyone was cheering and telling me afterwards: ‘Great fight.’
“It was a feel-good moment, even though I didn’t get the decision.
“After I lost my second fight, I thought: ‘It’s time to start winning,’ so I decided to switch gyms.
“The only advice I got in sparring was: ‘Go and smash him.’ The coaches didn’t want me to slip and move my feet.
“One time I didn’t have my mouthguard, but was told that I could still spar. I lost a bit of my tooth and ended up with blood gushing out of my nose. I lost my love for boxing a bit.”
He then found that John was a better fit.
“David has always told me to express myself,” says Jolly. “Now I dance through boxing. It’s a combination of martial arts and dancing – and everything in between.”
John had boxed as an amateur for Robert Browning ABC and played rugby union at a good level as well, for Rosslyn Park and Bedford.
“If you played rugby, you trained twice a week, played on Saturday, and then went on the piss,” he says. “That sounded better to me than boxing.”
But John still loved boxing, and remembering that Spencer Fearon had told him that he would make a good coach, so he set up Double Jab ABC in Forest Hill in 2009.
He went on to move to Swansea, opened a gym there and, one day, Jolly walked in.
In their first – and only – amateur bout together, Jolly won on points.
Moses, a mellow and thoughtful character, remembers someone in the crowd shouting: “This is supposed to be boxing, not [Strictly] Come Dancing.’ One of the coaches even told him that he moves like Sugar Ray Robinson.
Jolly then looked to be on his way, but it was another six years before he boxed again.
The demands of fatherhood – Jolly has two children – and Covid kept him out of action, and by the time he made his pro debut, he had banked rounds with Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce.
“Moses is such a good athlete,” says Helliet. “The movement, the balance, the rhythm were all there and I thought: ‘We have all the ingredients here – apart from the amateur career.’ Every spar he has got better and better.”
Helliet got Jolly his pro debut in his hometown, Swansea, and the fighter admits: “If I didn’t win, then that would have been it.”
“I hadn’t fought for six years and had only done four rounds with Jeamie TKV to prepare”
Helliet said: “They weren’t a good four rounds, either.”
Confidence was high in the opposite corner.
Lamah Griggs was coming off a points win that left his record 1-1, and Jolly remembers his manager, the late Jimmy Gill, saying: “We haven’t come for a move-around; we’ve come to win.”
Jolly says the atmosphere that night was wild, and his supporters saw him come through a bruising four rounder.
“I didn’t expect an easy night,” says Moses. “[Griggs] was coming off a win and I knew he wanted to take me out. He tried to walk me down and knock me out. It was exhilarating. It was the test I needed. It cemented my confidence.
Helliet has since said that he would bet every penny he has that Moses will at least for the British title, and hard-as-nails journeyman Phil Williams ranks Jolly alongside Fabio Wardley as two of the best he’s faced in his 66-fight career.
Helliet regards the Welshman as one of the quickest learners he’s met, and Jolly appears to have added one-punch knockout power to his repertoire.
He moved to 10-0 by laying out Yury Bykhautsou with a pin-point right hand to the chin in February, shortly after adding a strength and conditioning coach to his close-knit team.
“I feel that I have more power and more confidence to throw the punches now,” says Jolly. “I was more of a combination puncher.”
Jolly will be punching harder once he hits 252lbs, as is John’s plan.
John doesn’t mind being known as ‘Crazy David,’ while Jolly is ‘The Native’.
That comes from Jolly’s descendants. His mother’s family are from Jamaica and their roots are in the Arawak tribes that were the first to settle on the Caribbean island.
Jolly has other nicknames, too.
He was ‘The Dancing Doorman’ when he worked on the doors of Swansea’s pubs and clubs and now calls himself ‘Bob The Builder’, explaining: “It’s because I create homes for my punches. Every punch needs a home!”
Jolly, who has a German father, describes himself as “a thinker”.
He said: “I like to read; I like to question things.
“I used to write poetry and now I do physical poetry instead.
“I do some hip-hop, rap and freestyle. I talk about my personal experiences, my surroundings, and sometimes I include a bit of boxing.
“I have performed a few gigs and they were awesome. I moved the crowd.”
Jolly has given boxing crowds what they want as well, with stoppage wins followed by spectacular celebrations.
“I like to celebrate my wins with acrobatic moves,” he said. “I’m showing that I’m still fit to carry on fighting.”
