Rising Illawarra boxing star Jeremiah Jabbour is eyeing a gold medal on the world stage after claiming the Oceania light-heavyweight title in Samoa last weekend.
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Jabbour, who trains out of Crocker’s Gym under veteran trainer Vito Gaudiosi, won his first off-shore bout, and just his 15th overall, with an impressive second-round stoppage.
It continues a dominant run for the son of former pro Taylor Jabbour that's seen him claim the NSW and Australian amateur titles since March.
“It feels pretty good, I feel like I've done my family proud, especially my dad and my coach Vito,” Jabbour said.
“It was my first international fight, he was a big boy and he probably 30 to 40 more fights than me. We went in the ring and I just did my thing and got the second-round TKO. I was really happy to get the stoppage.
“I thought I boxed well in the first round just picking my shots. I came back to my corner the coach told me what to do, just attack his body and chop him down like a tree, and that's what I went in there to do.”
Having claimed a tough treble of titles, the Cringila local is eyeing gold at the AIBA Youth World Championships in Budapest in August.
He's also planning a push Youth Olympic Games gold in Buenos Aires in October, with the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 his ultimate end-game.
“My goal is to bring back gold, 100 per cent,” Jabbour said.
"You've got to set high goals. I remember Vito sitting us down four years ago and giving us the talk. He said if you don't set high goals you're not going to get anywhere.
"From that day on I've stayed switched on and kept training and harder. Now I'll need to keep training hard times a hundred.
“I've got more people involved with my training and my diet, Nutrition Warehouse have come on board, so Vito's brought good people in and I'm ready to step it up.
“I'm aiming for the Olympics in 2020 so I've just got to get a heap more fights in. I'll have a few tough opponents in my category so I'm going to have to keep pushing to get better and better.”
Gaudiosi is closing in on three decades training young fighters and is confident his protege has the ability to compete at Olympic level if he maintains his current trajectory.
“I definitely think Jerry can go to an Olympics, especially in an 80-kilo division, but it's entirely up to him what he wants to do,”Gaudiosi said.
“It's hard to tell how a young kid's going to go but Jerry had it from the day he started. I could tell from day one he was eager to learn so a kid like that, who also has that toughness in them, you know they're going to around for a long time.
“He's very disciplined in all aspects of his life, his employer Programmed Industrial Maintenance are hugely supportive of his ambitions which we're really appreciative of.
“He's traveling really well but it's going to take time. He's still only had 15 fights at this stage, so he's in the early years of his boxing apprencticeship.”