Trainer Tibbs at the TKO gym
MARK TIBBS has backed both his TRAD TKO gym debutants Frank Buglioni and Gary Corcoran to shine at Wembley Arena this Saturday on the ‘Gladiator’ bill.
The two young prospects feature on a talent-packed undercard to the main event of Ricky Burns’ world title fight against Australian dynamo Michael Katsidis.
Tibbs, the son of the father-son combination, of the Canning town gym will see two of his young fighters take to the big stage on Saturday but believes that it is the first step of two successful careers for the London-based boxers.
Buglioni who joined Frank Warren’s stable only a few months ago finally makes his first professional outing after an illustrious amateur career.
Tibbs is backing the former team GB member to kick off his career in style on Saturday evening, “He will do a number on this kid on Saturday. His opponent has had eight fights; he is a big guy and he can fight. Frankie has all the tools of the trade to do well and will be showing that on Saturday.”
The Olympic hopeful could have continued as an amateur in a bid to compete for an Olympic spot but turned professional in June, Tibbs has revealed how much his young prospect is relishing his big chance, “He is so looking forward to making his pro debut. He has always felt like a pro when he was amateur in a way where his style is more suited to the professional game. That is why he didn’t continue and made the choice to step up when he did.”
The London fighter has made a name for himself in gyms across the London having already sparred with the likes of Billy Joe Saunders and George Groves. Many have tipped the super-middleweight for the top and his trainer says he has the potential to go all the way, “How far he can go is down to him. He is a class act but I don’t want to be putting too much pressure on him. He likes a tear up and he has plenty of grit but we have been working on fighting from distance as well.”
Buglioni has been training with Jimmy and Mark Tibbs in east London for the last five or so months and in that time there has been a huge improvement to his all-round game, “You could see the potential of him, he has improved and people have already commented on how good he looks. He just needed some new ingredients to his make-up. In the last few months you could see how much his confidence has grown in his boxing ability, the way he throws his shots now.”
Tibbs scouted Buglioni himself, “I first saw Frank in his amateur days in the ABA’s at the York hall, I went up to him and asked who is trainer was and if he was interested in sparring with our boy Saunders, he was the perfect sparring for Billy.
He did it for nothing so in return as a favour I offered him some training and sometime after that he asked me to coach him.”
After the super-middleweight makes his first appearance he will be taking a seat at ring side to watch two of Britain’s best in his division go head to head, boxers who Tibbs believes Buglioni should aspire too, “It is going to be very beneficial for him that after his fight, he needs to sit down immediately and watches Groves and Smith to learn from them. We have sparred with Groves before and it went really well, he needs to aspire to them.”
The second fighter on the books at the TKO gym is Corcoran who will also be aiming to make his first stamp on the professional scene.
Tibbs spoke of how different the two fighters were but how similar their potentials are, “Gary is a different animal compared to Frank. He is altogether a lovely lad. We have a lot of trust in each other now. He has the potential to go along way as well.”
The son of legendary trainer Jimmy Tibbs told of the power Corcoran is showing off in the gym already, “He just walks through his opponents. He is known for it in the gym. He is nicknamed the ‘Steam train’ and the ‘Bulldozer’.
Tibbs will be hoping to come away from Wembley on Saturday night with his two debutants having made the perfect start, “The plan is to have two debut victories for the two lads and they will both come away with a win.
I have every faith in them, there is no reason why they shouldn’t go on to have a big career.”
Greg Grimes
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