MY memories of my early twenties are mainly assigned to frequenting the two local nightclubs after a long weekend inhaling graphite at the factory where I was working at the time. It was a time when health and safety were merely an afterthought, and I don’t mean drinking cans of Red Stripe in the early hours trying to dance, and failing miserably, to Tainted Love by Soft Cell. Not a pretty sight. Incidentally, one of those two nightclubs burnt down one Sunday night. Rockford’s has many a story to tell.
Mikie Tallon isn’t wasting his formative years on a sticky dance floor guzzling over-priced lager. The Liverpool fighter is only 20, but he has already tasted the joys of Las Vegas. The unbeaten flyweight prospect recorded win number ten with a unanimous six-round points victory over the tough American Christian Robles.
“It was really good,” Tallon told Boxing News over Zoom. “It was boss while we were there, but the build-up with getting a visa and the flights over there was very last-minute. It was dead stressful the week before, but once we got there, it was very good. It was sort of my first live opponent who came to win, so it brought out the best in me.”
Despite being only just out of his teenage years, Tallon is already filling up his memory bank. A Vegas trip that won’t be forgotten easily. “It was all a bit mad. While you are there, you don’t take everything in; it’s more like taking things as they come and seeing what tomorrow brings. As a kid, you always think about boxing in Las Vegas, but you never think it will happen. You just say it.”
But Tallon will have another night to rival his experience in Sin City. On the 15th November, Tallon will have fight number eleven at the home of Tottenham Hotspur on the undercard of the seismic rematch between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn.
“I’m made up,” Tallon says of his next big night. “I can’t wait. People have recognised my good performance in Vegas, and they want to see me back out again on another big card.”
Tallon will do his thing several hours before Eubank and Benn run it back again. The unbeaten prospect believes the naturally bigger fighter will again emerge victorious. “I think Eubank wins again,” Tallon says.
“I just think he’s too good a boxer. I know Benn can obviously scrap and will obviously have a go, but I think Eubank is a bit too clever for him. I think Benn might stick to the game plan for a few rounds, but I think he will revert back to his natural style and what he is good at.”
Tallon is now 10-0 and progressing quite nicely as a professional. The Joe Gallagher-trained fighter is pleased with his progress.
“I am happy with how everything is going so far. Everyone else is happy around me as well. I am in a good place at the moment. Hopefully, get this one out of the way in November and then try to squeeze one more in before the end of the year.
“Next year, I want to try to push on for titles or take whatever Tasha and Joe think are the right fights to take. You can’t actually fight for a British title until you are 21, and I turn 21 in January, so hopefully I can get the British title next year and then push on from there.”
Gallagher is a master of navigating a fighter through the embryonic stages of their career. The respect Tallon has for his trainer is obvious. “Joe is proper old-school. But that’s ideal for me. That’s what I need. That’s the best style of coach I could have found.”
Tallon is managed by the former two-weight world champion Natasha Jonas. “I had a sit-down with Tasha at my old amateur gym,” Jonas says of how their working relationship started. “She said to come to the Gallagher’s Gym so she could have a look at me. I asked Joe if he wanted to train me, and he said yes, and we went from there. Everything just fell into place at the right time.”
Mikie Tallon was the first fighter Jonas agreed to take under her wing once she had acquired her management licence. ‘Miss GB’ is somewhat learning on the job herself, but it’s not hard to see that all concerned are on the right path.
“Getting on the Saudi cards is good exposure for Mikie,” Jonas told me. “Going to places like America is a good experience for him as well. After just nine fights, we took a bit of a risk with the last one, and that’s because we had to. As long as we get those opportunities, and the risk/reward is good, then we will keep on taking those risks.
“But he is still young, and he didn’t have any senior experience as an amateur, so he is still getting used to the man strength, and he is still learning. But we are going to keep moving him forward. Mikie was the first boxer I ever took on, and I did say to him that we would be on this journey together.”
If everything goes to plan, Tallon will end the year unbeaten in twelve fights, and the chase for a British title and more will start in the early months of 2026. Mikie Tallon is incredibly grounded, but equally, the ambitions are high. “Under Joe, and if I keep listening to the people around me, I think I can all the way to the top.”
