By Matt Bozeat
THE New Year brings a new challenge for one of England Boxing’s best talents.
Tobias Taylor was among those honoured when England Performance handed out their Boxer of the Year awards during a celebration day in Sheffield.
The teenager from New Saints ABC in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, was recognised after winning European Junior Championship bronze in Sarajevo in June and then gold at the BoxAm tournament in Spain four months later.
This month Taylor is entered in the Youth Championships and New Saints coach Kev Bullus has warned the 80kgs box-puncher to brace himself for the hardest bouts of his ring career.
“He’s at the bottom of the pile in terms of age and experience,” said Bullus, who boxed himself for New Saints and Bedford ABCs.
“There were hard bouts for him when he stepped up from Schools to Youths and we expect the same again.
“Tobias only turned youth in January, he isn’t 17 until June and could be giving away 18 months.
“He has only just turned into a Youth and could find himself boxing people who are 18 and turning into men.
“It’s a big step up.
“In my experience, the jump from Juniors to Youths is the biggest.
“The Youths is a very tough championship to win, but Tobias needs the challenge.”
Bullus points out that Taylor has never lost in New Saints colours and the teenager spent Christmas in the gym as he looks to extend that proud record.
The Eastern Counties final is set to be held next weekend and Bullus says Taylor will be ready.
“We have upped the intensity of his training and his sparring partners,” he said.
“Tobias has always been very fast for his size and we’ve got him sitting down on his shots now, so he’s hitting harder.
“Tobias has sparred older lads and, whenever he’s eaten a shot, he’s taken it well. It’s going to be a tough couple of years ahead for him, but Tobias is prepared for it.”
Few entered in the Youth Championship at 80kgs will be able to match Taylor’s experience at international level.
At 16, he is already a veteran of three European Championships.
Taylor won European Schools gold in Turkey in 2022 and went to the European Juniors the following year.
Bullus puts much of Taylor’s success down to his boxing IQ.
“Tobias has that ability to read opponents and adapt,” said Bullus.
“Often there’s a limited amount of homework you can do on opponents. Tobias can have a look in the first round and come up with the answers.
“We are also looking in the corner, but by the time the first round has ended Tobias has usually worked it out for himself.”
Boxing is only one of Taylor’s talents.
“He’s a good looking lad who can dance, play guitar and fight!” said Bullus.
Taylor goes along with that and says his dancing feet are a help to his boxing career. “Boys my size tend to be plodders,” said Taylor, who stands around 6ft 2ins tall.
“I can move and they can’t deal with that. I can move and set the punches up.”
That was the story of the BoxAm final against Aleksandre Baldasz in October.
“My last international bout was against Georgia and they beat me [in the semi-finals of the European Junior Championships] so I was glad I was drawn against him,” said Taylor and he proved his point in emphatic style.
He was quick to find the range with his sharp jab and was denied a knockdown in the last minute of the first after the referee ruled Baldasz had slipped when it appeared Taylor had walked onto a right-left hook combination.
To the surprise of Boxing News, Taylor only won the opening round on four of the five scorecards after appearing to dominate.
The judges wouldn’t be needed. Taylor came out for the second, oozing confidence with his hands dangling by his sides. He coolly slipped the Georgian’s punches and then spotted a gap and slammed a hard right onto his chin, forcing an ‘eight’ count.
Taylor soon dazed him with another left-right and the bout was waved off.
“I set the punches up and got the stoppage” was how Taylor described his night’s work to Boxing News.
Taylor has 13 stoppages on his 24-3 record, with Bullus saying it is the “variety and speed” of Taylor’s punches that give his opponents trouble.
Tobias has gone from being the second-best boxer in his own house to being one of the best in Europe.
“I was 10 ½ years old when I started,” said Taylor, whose father John Boy is one of the coaches at the club.
“That’s when I had my first skills bout. I was nine stones when I was nine years old. I was a big lad and quiet. I went to the gym to lose some weight.
“My brother John Boy was a natural and nobody thought I would stick at it. He packed up and I’m still here.”
Taylor regards Royston Barney-Smith as one of his best friends in boxing and says he will be in no rush to join the stylish super-featherweight southpaw in the professional ranks after he celebrates his 18th birthday in June, 2025.
Barney-Smith turned over at 18 years old after winning back-to-back European Schools golds (2017 and 2018) and European Junior bronze in 2019.
“There’s always the risk of turning pro too soon,” he said. “A lot turn too early.
“I want to go to the European and World Youth Championships. They are my targets.”
Other winners at the England Performance awards night included World Under-19 Champion Leo Atang. He was named Youth Male Boxer of the Year after striking gold in Colorado.
Legions coach Ashley Martin confirmed Atang has also been entered in the Youth Championships, up at super-heavyweight.
Leo Wood scooped the Senior Male Boxer and Senior Boxers’ Boxer awards at the English Institute of Sport after winning the National Amateur Championship at 57kgs and then bronze at the European Under-23 Championships in Bulgaria in October.
Billy Long took a similar double in the Schools Male category.
He was rewarded for a sensational year during which he won European Schools gold in Bosnia and Herzegovina with five wins in the space of only seven days.
Long had three unanimous points wins and two stoppages on his way to gold at bantamweight.
