Scarborough's Max Jenkins earns KO win on professional debut in Estonia

The heavyweight boxer secured victory with a knockout towards the end of the first round against Serbian Bartosz Szkudlarczyk, on a show in Tallinn.

Jenkins, who owns the Involve Fitness gym on Roscoe Street in Scarborough, said: “I turned professional in this bout in Estonia, and was due to fly over on the Thursday before the Saturday February 12 bout.

“On Thursday my corner men were due to fly over but their PCR tests were positive so they had to stay home and I had to fly over on my own.

“I had an Iranian lad in my corner, he did not know any English so I was well and truly on my own for the fight.

“The lad I was fighting against had a 3-6 record and had lost his last three fights so he came out swinging but I managed to knock him out later in the round.

“I took the fight in Tallinn as the British Board of Boxing suspended all fights for January so when the February 12 bout in Estonia came up I took the chance.

“I’ve been offered a couple of fights, one on a show on Sky Sports in May and one overseas in April, but I need to talk to my trainer Julian McGowan, who trained British champion Gary

Sykes, before we make any decisions on what to do next.”

Jenkins decided to turn pro after winning eight white collar fights, admitting that he had never considered taking up boxing before he took up an invite to fight on a white collar show to raise money as part of a charity show.

He said: “Five years ago one of my friend’s family had Leukaemia and they organised a charity boxing show to raise money.

“I took part and enjoyed it so decided to give boxing a go and went on to have eight bouts in white collar shows.

“I was due to fight Shane Fury, brother of two-time world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, during the pandemic on a charity show but it didn’t happen for whatever reason.”