English light heavyweight champion, Troy Jones, 12-0 (6 KOs), has built his reputation and fan base in the conference rooms and small hall venues of Birmingham.

In November, opportunity knocked. When the flyweight fight between Galal Yafai and Sunny Edwards landed in his hometown, Jones was handed a prime spot on the undercard.

Although Jones would have preferred his first impression to be spectacular rather than solid, the awkward, tough Michael Stephenson knew just enough to stay safe.

He frustrated Jones’ best efforts and whilst the 26 year-old will have been pleased to have retained his English title, he had to settle for a wide, unanimous decision victory.

Experience has taught Jones' coach, Lee Beard, to look at the bigger picture and he saw exactly what he needed to.

“I thought he boxed really well. I thought he started the fight just as we wanted him to. He got his rhythm, got control of the range, distance, and just settled down into the fight. With it being Troy's first big stadium fight on a big platform, I knew that there would probably come a little bit of nerves with that trying to impress et cetera,” Beard told The Ring.

“I think a bit of tension crept in and a little bit of stress and that was something new for him to deal with. I thought he dealt with it really well and kept calm. When he came back to the corner, he was listening and went back out the next round.

“He was always at least trying to do the right thing. So when you watch it back it was a good performance.

“He wanted it to be a bit cleaner and stuff like that. He was a bit frustrated with Stevenson's holding but that's part of boxing, isn't it? That you learn from and move forward.”

As useful as the fight was for rounding out Jones’ game in the ring, Beard feels that the whole experience of fighting on a major show will help him massively in the future.

Jones is a popular fighter who has got accustomed to performing in front of hundreds of friends and family members but fighting on a major show in a large arena expended his horizons dramatically.

It gave him the chance to reintroduce himself to a whole new audience and to perform in front of some of boxing’s major power brokers. Jones is a big character but it was still a significant night in his career.

Beard has got to know Jones well since they began working with each other just over two years ago. He is positive that he will have learned plenty from the whole affair.

“He just wanted to probably impress a bit more than he felt he did, but I said to him after the fight, ‘You boxed well there’ because it's the first big occasion. The first big show with the big build-up. The public workout, he had two press conferences, he had the weigh-in. There were cameras everywhere and people interviewing him and that's something that he actually hasn't had before,” he said.

“His mental strength is unreal. It’s not easy to beat Troy. Now he's got that more experience, it's going to be even harder because he can take a shot and he can punch. He's got that work ethic. He throws a hundred punches around.

“He can box. He can fight. He's done two back-to-back ten rounders and the last one that he just did, he just sailed through. He was more just more frustrated at the fact that he was being held a lot but that's a learning thing and he's been through that now.”

Britain’s light heavyweight division has plenty of star power and a whole host of fighters vying for title success at every level but Jones’s first appearance on a major show didn’t double as an audition for the chance to jump into the away corner for a fight with one of the leading lights.

Beard believes that Jones has the potential to develop into a major attraction in his own right. The English title is a useful bargaining chip and the ability to sell thousands of pounds worth of tickets is also an extremely handy quality to have.

Beard knows that Jones will be given opportunities but is experienced enough to know that choosing the correct pathway is crucial.

“I'll see what's out there,” Beard said. “He does an immense amount of tickets. He sold over 750 tickets for this fight and we was begging from three, four weeks out to try and get tickets. We know a million percent he would have done over a thousand tickets for that show if he'd have just got them

“So there's a couple of options that we're looking at and a couple of offers that we're looking at, but it's basically what's best for Troy and what's best for Troy's next move. He's just going to look at everything. He’s going to have a rest now over the new year and then he’ll be back in the gym the first week of January and we'll hopefully have a few offers or opportunities on the table there to look at and sit down and discuss.”