Although Josh Jauncey has lived the majority of his life in Vancouver, Canada this weekends Glory 54 SuperFight Series event will be a bit of a homecoming for the former lightweight title challenger.
Born a few hundred miles from the Genting Arena in Lewisham, South East London, Jauncey moved to the great white north when he was only a few years old.
As a 9-year old he would have his first kickboxing fight and would go on to carve out quite the career around the globe but would never compete on the British Isles…..until this coming Saturday.
When speaking exclusively to MMA Plus the 25-year old could not hide his excitement at the thought of competing in front of his family and friends in the UK for the first time.
“I’m excited, really excited for it because I have a lot of friends and family who live not too far from there [Birmingham] and I’ve always wanted to compete at home and formally introduce my countrymen to Josh Jauncey and grow my support there.
Although I’ve lived in Canada forever I still feel like an Englishman and despite living in Vancouver for most of my life I’ve been brought up by English people.
My culture is still English, it’s not Canadian its English although we live here we live like English people. Its funny because some people here think my accent is fake but it’s just who I am, an Englishman living in Canada lol.”
After an up and down 2017, which saw him go 1-1, he would get off to the perfect start in 2018, earning a split decision win over Stoyan Koprivienski at Glory 52.
After the positive start to the year, Jauncey is glad he has taken a positive step forward by getting back to winning ways, something he aims to continue doing while silencing his doubters.
“It felt really good winning my first fight this year. It felt even better because people were making such a big deal out of my last loss. I mean s**t its kickboxing losses have never meant that much as long as you put on a good fight.
Since Glory have started giving out performance bonuses I’ve won one every fight, whether the outcome for me is positive or negative. Even in the fight where I get KO’d I still received a bonus for upset of the year [lol] but I still don’t know why people are making such a big deal about one fight. It felt good to silence some of my doubters and start the year off in a positive fashion.
My last fight showcased some of what I’m capable of, last July was not an accurate representation of Josh Jauncey. I wasn’t on top form, I just wasn’t myself so I believe what we saw last time out was closer to what I’m capable of.”
Now when he enters the Genting Arena on Saturday, Jauncey has a chance to avenge a 2016, Glory 35 majority decision loss to Mike’s Gym standout, Christian ‘Bad News’ Baya.
It is a chance that he intends to grasp with both hands when he faces German-born Baya in the SuperFight Series co-headline bout.
“I’m really excited to face him again. I thought we had a really fun fight in Nice but this time I’m actually training to face a guy like him.
Before I was training to face a southpaw with a Thai-style which couldn’t be further away from Baya’s style so now I’m actually training for his style.
To be honest I’m the type of guy who is always looking for revenge. It sounds a bit petty but its true. At the moment I’m feeling really good so I would like to avenge all my career losses so this is a great place to start so I’m excited about this one. He [Baya] is a nice fighter and is a step up from my last opponent Stoyan so I’m really excited to face him again.”
With revenge on his mind and the desire to impress on his much-touted prodigal return to England this weekend Jauncey is laser-focused on the task at hand.
“My homecoming has been a long time in the making and I can’t wait to showcase my skills and get the win in front of my countrymen on Saturday night.”
