Van-Gelder ‘buzzing’ after winning debut
Jay Van-Gelder…shut-out win for the featherweight on Saturday night
REDDITCH’S big punching Jay Van-Gelder will fight as a professional under the ring-name “The Truth”.
The whole truth, and nothing but the truth, regarding the featherweight’s potential is yet to be revealed.
But Jay can be mightily pleased with his debut, a shutout, four round points win on manager Anthony Manning’s show at the Eastside Rooms, Birmingham.
Manchester’s Stephen Jackson withstood a withering, non-stop body barrage and used survivor skills gained during a 63 bout career to see it through until the final bell. Despite notching up one win in his career, Jackson is a rugged hombre. He’s near impossible to budge.
“He was a tough bloke,” acknowledged Jay, still on a high following Saturday’s pro baptism. “I’m a big puncher – he’s absolutely got a chin. I said to him afterwards, ‘what are you made of?’ I was hitting him with punches that usually put people away.”
Van-Gelder, just 21, ticked the right boxes. He has a fan-friendly style and, importantly, showed he can put bums on seats. In today’s game, flogging tickets is one of the best defences a fighter can possess: everyone wants to protect a prospect who brings in the cash.
An army of 150 supporters – they roared like 300 in the arena – witnessed Van Gelder dominate. Their hero put on a show for them. Those numbers elevated the novice to “last bout, top of the bill” status on the big night.
“I was buzzing with the way everything went,” Jay told me. “I felt really nervous when I entered the venue, I was nervous when I heard I was main event, I was nervous when I was hitting the pads.
“When I got out of the dressing room and saw everyone, I just completely enjoyed it.”
Fight week had not been without complications. Jay’s original opponent withdrew at short notice and he needed to strip weight for Jackson.
“Just days to drop three kilos (over six pounds) was brutal, to be honest,” he admitted. “But I said to Anthony (Manning), ‘get me a fight at whatever weight you can’.”
Manning delivered.
Van-Gelder and former amateur coach Gary Blower after the bout
For this one, Van-Gelder, a product of Redditch’s Studio ABC, changed his usual swashbuckling style.
“I thought, I’m going to be a bit different for this fight,” he explained, “I’m going to rip him to the body and I did that for four rounds.
“I don’t think I could’ve done anything better, everything went to plan. I didn’t get hit for four rounds, I came out of the ring injury free. I didn’t score a stoppage, but I’m not going to lose any sleep over it – I said before I was going to be calculated.
“People were saying, ‘we didn’t know you could box like that’. I opened a lot of eyes.”
Jay has been well and truly bitten by the pro bug: he wants to be out again as soon as possible.
He added: “I’m taking it fight by fight. Do I think titles will come down the line? One hundred per cent. Do I think a big organisation will pick me up? One hundred per cent.”
*Van-Gelder has asked to thank sponsors A&s Financial Services, G Mammal and Athena Performance.