Former British and European Lightweight champion Jon Thaxton talks to James Hernandez about his career in and outside of the ring …
Saturday April 9 2005. A significant date in the life of Jon Thaxton. It was the night he was crowned champion of the world, albeit for the lightly regarded WBF version, in his home city of Norwich. The locals, many of whom had seen Norwich City famously beat Manchester United 2-0 that afternoon at Carrow Road, packed out the Norwich Sports Village to see their gladiator make it a memorable sporting double for Norfolk.
With steel-like intensity there would be no stopping Thaxton that night. In just one glance you could see a man so focused, so motivated he had the fight won before the opening bell had sounded. Sitting ringside I could smell the blood of his opponent, Christophe De Busillet, with a distinct metal taste in my mouth as ‘Jono’ threw punch after punch, like relentless North Sea waves pounding against the cliff-tops of Dunkirk.
Every punch was finely executed and detonating on their intended target to perfection. The Norwich boxing fraternity got what they had come for, as they witnessed their local hero make light work of an increasingly sorry-looking Frenchman to win inside four rounds. Jubilant scenes ensued for the triumphant Thaxton and pity for the challenger who returned home to his native shores a beaten soldier.
Fast forward some eight years later and those same high levels of determination and intensity are still present as I meet up with Jon at Attleborough ABC, 15 miles south west of Norwich. Jon puts in a special appearance for the young hopefuls that want to follow in the footsteps of Thaxton and make their mark as a professional. His talk is inspiring, engaging and honest as he talks about what it takes to make it: “Hard work and dedication, as there are simply no short cuts to stardom in boxing.”
For 17 years, impressive in itself for such a punishing sport, Norwich’s boxing hero mixed it with the best of them inside the ring. He gave it his all. Blood, sweat and tears were exchanged for the highly coveted Lonsdale belt, which arrived some 14 years after turning professional in 1992. However, there inevitably comes a time when every boxer has had his day – the day when the human body just ceases to perform at its optimum level. It’s every boxer’s worst nightmare; the day they take out the gum shield one last time and call it quits. Many boxers such as Ken Norton and Evander Holyfield can’t let go and carry on way past their best, risking serious injuries for one last payday. Others, like Mike Tyson and Ricky Hatton, through binge drinking and recreational drugs, go off the rails until they find who they are outside of the boxing ring. The day when any successful boxer realises it is over can be one of the most isolated days of a fighter’s life. Once the boxing stops, there is an enormous void to fill.
“That’s all they know how and they don’t know what else to do,” says Thaxton. “With me, I was very smart as I built a business outside of boxing, through things such as team building, working in schools, motivational workshops. I used my boxing as a tool to get into business.” And business is going well for Thaxton; his fitness classes are regularly filled every week and there are bookings coming in all the time to work in schools. Jono is working every day of the week and that’s just how he likes it. “I am very fortunate and very proud with what I have built up outside of boxing,” he admits. “People carry on because they have nothing to fall back on and they need the money. I’ve got a business to run, I get up at 5am everyday and I am out working and I couldn’t be happier.”
The former European lightweight champion vividly remembers the first time he realised that his body was crying out to him to stop. Surprisingly, it was another three years before he decided to finally hang up the gloves. “My last ‘best’ fight was after I beat Dave Stewart [his second defence of the British title in October 2007] over 12 rounds,” he confesses. “[After that] the mind was willing, but the body wasn’t able.”
It was the beginning of the end of Thaxton’s career as a boxer on the very top of his game, as his body started to age and weaken. The signs were also there in the gym, as his usual sharpness deserted him. “My next fight after that was Yuri Ramanau for the European title,” he recalls. “Getting ready for that fight I just wasn’t right. The Dave Stewart fight had aged me and I was never the same in the gym again.”
Nevertheless, Thaxton turned the clock back to be crowned the best in Europe with an emphatic knockout of Juan Carlos Diaz Melero: “I knocked Melero clean out in three rounds. So it wasn’t a case of heads going to the well to see if there’s any water in there – we didn’t need to go that far.” That success only served to delay the inevitable and heartbreak was just around the corner: in February 2009, Thaxton lost his belt to Anthony Mezaache in his first defence. “It was a hard fight but a fight I should have won easily,” he argues. “I knocked him down in the first round and he then spat his gum shield out, he should have been disqualified.”
Mezaache weathered the early storm, regained his composure and won unanimously to rip the European title away. “After that I fought Tom Glover [July 2009] just as a comeback fight to keep me busy,” Thaxton explains. “I used to spar with Tom in the gym and run absolute rings around him.” Despite the fact Jon knew Glover well and knew what was needed to defeat him, Glover’s desire and will trumped Thaxton’s know-how. “I remember turning up at the weigh-in and Tom looking at me as though he was going to knock me out. I went up to Tom being all friendly and he just looked straight through me. As I went back to my hotel I started to wonder if this was the same kid I used to spar for fun in the gym!”
Glover won the fight, but amid controversial circumstances. Referee Ken Curtis deducted a point from Thaxton in the seventh round for holding and made Glover the winner by a single point. “Did he beat me?” Thaxton reflects. “Listen I was a pro for 17 years and not once did I ever have a point deducted. I thought I’d won the fight in the earlier rounds. But even in that fight I thought to myself: ‘What the hell I am doing in this ring?’”
In the aftermath Thaxton sought advice from his father on whether to call it a day, but along came another chance to regain the British title. “My dad told me to retire after that loss, but I got the chance to fight John Murray for the British title [his last professional fight, October 2009] and it was another payday. During the fight I was thinking: ‘if this kid hits me on the chin he can knock me out because I just don’t want to be here’. I knew then it was going to be my last fight; I didn’t have it anymore.”
Not every boxer will be as lucky as Thaxton in having such a solid and supportive family base. His long-term wife, Mikaela, will be the first to tell you she’s not a fan of the sweet science, but she has been with her husband every step of the way in his boxing career, a fact Thaxton is quick to acknowledge: “My wife has been 100 per cent behind me with her fantastic support, for which I am most grateful.”
After 45 professional bouts, Thaxton looks back at his achievements with a huge sense of pride. “I am very proud of what I achieved inside the ring, and I don’t have a single regret,” he says, with evident satisfaction. “My career was tarred with 11 losses, but every loss was a learning curve. Defeats never deflated me; yes they did upset me because I always gave my all. I knew my limitations as a boxer, I never had the ability of an Amir Khan type, but I always gave everything I had and you can’t knock that.”
Despite his numerous title triumphs it is perhaps one of Thaxton’s losses that will live longest in the memory, and it’s a fight that went down in British boxing folklore. “The Ricky Hatton fight was my best fight ever, not my best performance but my best fight,” he explains. “I hit him in the first round and he needed 28 stitches from that cut. I kept on going till the final bell and I never quit. We tore each other apart for 36 minutes and we were the best of friends after. That’s boxing.”
The lure of returning to professional boxing proved too hard to resist for Thaxton and he was granted his professional trainer’s licence in 2012. As well as his other business concerns, he is currently assisting his former trainer, Graham Everett, at the Kick Stop gym in Norwich, overseeing the likes of Nathan Dale and the Walsh brothers. Boxing history is littered with the sad stories of fighters who quit too late or never adjusted to life outside the ring; Jon Thaxton is a happy exception, a fighter whose boxing afterlife resounds with the sweet smell of success, rather than the stench of loss and regret.