Aloys Junior exclusive: when I box, I set traps
Aloys Junior loves competition.
Whether it is fighting, playing video games or thinking his way through a game of chess, the explosive cruiserweight isn’t the type to turn down a challenge. For all the latest fight odds, visit our sportsbook.
“Competitive? Come on. Listen, if you see the word ‘Competitive’ in the dictionary, you’ll find my face there,” Junior, 7-1 (7 KOs), told 32Red.
“I like playing chess. They know me as a legend at UFC on PS5. When I play it, I treat it like a boxing match. I’m gonna do this, my opponent will get used to that so then I’ll change it. I play it very similarly to the way I box. I set traps.”
Junior is becoming adept at setting traps. The bundle of violent energy who turned professional as an enthusiastic but raw 18 year-old is slowly maturing into a very dangerous, patient banger.
Since losing his debut to the excellent Michal Soczynski – a fight he rashly took on just five hours notice – Junior has stopped all seven of his opponents and has been getting better and better with each appearance.
“I don’t have a weak link”
Junior is thriving because he is enjoys being in competition with himself. Although he trains alongside the likes of Anthony Joshua and Leigh Wood at the Ben Davison performance centre, boxing is an individual sport and Junior is relishing the opportunity to watch some of the best fighters in the world at work and then push himself to try and match them.
“I like all things but I like individual sports because I know that a lot of guys aren’t going to put in the energy that I put in,” he said. “They don’t care enough. It would drive me more than mad. If you’re not on job I see it like an insult. You’re only as strong as your weakest link and I don’t have a weak link in me.”
He also doesn’t see any weak links in his successful team.
“Absolutely none.”
Although he is still only 21, Junior has already accumulated plenty of experience. Junior has been sparring some of the biggest and best fighters in British boxing since he was a teenager. As a 16-year-old he used to make his way to East London to share the ring with current IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois and those experiences taught him the importance of using sparring to learn and practice rather than fighting recklessly and trying to leave a permanent mark on a potential future opponent.
“My first fight I fought an unbeaten fighter”
“I feel like the younger I was, the more I would do that. As I’ve gone on, I’ve understood that sparring partners are just work. I’m not fighting you. I’m not trying to ice you. If a big shot lands, I’ll take a step back. I don’t need to come and try to finish you.
“Yes, I go into sparring with intentions of working but I’m not really trying to hurt you. Before I was like that but I’ve learned that we’re here to work. If I catch you with one shot and you go to sleep, that’s different but nowadays I wear 18oz or 20oz gloves so the likelihood of that is a lot less than when I’m wearing 16oz gloves.”
This weekend, Junior steps up a level. On Saturday night he fights unbeaten German, Oronzi Biradi at London’s York Hall. Biradi has won all eight of his fights and has knocked out six of his opponents but Junior hasn’t exactly been having sleepless nights about the prospect of taking on an ambitious, aggressive fighter like Biradi. He is treating it as just another opportunity to do what he enjoys.
“My first fight I fought an unbeaten fighter. I know what it is. It’s nothing new. All of these things, these titles and things, there’s nothing new. At the end of the day there’s still a man coming to box me. I know that I’m intelligent enough to be able to implement my stuff and get the job done. Yeah, he can punch but he’s got nothing like the force I’ve got.”
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