Why I'm fighting Terry's corner

In the past our personalities have just clashed. He had me taken off the team at one point, which was probably the most difficult part of my boxing career so far. He seems to have his favourites sometimes and I wasn't one of them. But at three Olympics he's proved he can do the job.

He's really big on discipline and you sense some of the lads are scared of him. But as well as that he's really clever and knows his boxing - he seems to know about everything to do with the sport: training, fighting, making weight.

Terry played a really important part in me winning a bronze medal at the Olympics, particularly the victory over Imre Szello which actually won me the medal. Before the quarter-final he watched a video with the other coaches, saw what was best and came up with the tactics to beat him. We worked really hard on them before the fight and it paid off because I fought a really good bout tactically.

I think the reason Terry didn't agree to stay on straight away was all the behind-the-scenes problems he had while we were in China. There seemed to be a campaign while we were in Beijing to unsettle Terry and therefore the team. It was out of order.

The day before I fought Kenny Egan in the light heavyweight semi-finals, the Daily Mail printed allegations about Billy-Joe Saunders which led to him getting suspended. To come out with them then was a disgrace. My team-mates James DeGale and David Price also had semi-finals that day and they were clearly trying to get into our heads.

I know the BOA (the British Olympic Association) was going mad about the timing, and rightly so. The ABA (Amateur Boxing Association) said it was nothing to do with them but there must have been some people within the organisation who were behind it.

Since I wrote my last blog I've been back with the Great Britain training squad in Sheffield. At the moment it's quite hard to get motivated because my future is still up in the air and I don't have a fight to aim for. Hopefully it's something that might get resolved in the next couple of weeks.

For more information on Tony Jeffries visit www.tonyjeffries.com.