Kickboxing has traditionally been dominated by fighters from Europe and Japan, but some interesting challengers to that national hegemony emerged over the course of the various GLORY World Series events which took place in 2013.
Joe Schilling’s winning of the GLORY 10 LOS ANGELES Middleweight Championship Tournament was a significant coup for US kickboxing, while the almost unstoppable march of ‘Bazooka’ Joe Valtellini saw the Canadian flag carried almost to the peak of the welterweight division.
Another bright Canadian star may emerge at GLORY 16 DENVER this Saturday, May 3 as Josh Jauncey (19-4, 9 KO’s) makes his GLORY debut in a Superfight Series bout with the experienced Warren Stevelmans (64-20-1, 20 KO’s).
“I would describe my style as technical but unpredictable. I try my best to stay sharp and clean, but I'm not afraid to take risks. Winning an exciting fight is my goal every time,” he says when asked to describe his style for people who haven’t seen him before.
“I've yet to have a boring fight and I don't plan on starting now.”
While Jauncey isn’t a name most GLORY fans are familiar with yet, he has been training with some names that fight fans will know very well. One is two-time K-1 MAX champion Andy Souwer, another is the UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo.
“Andy has been very big influence as I really looked up to his fighting style ever since my dad pointed him out when I was about 11. Ever since then I'd studied nearly every one of his fights that are online,” he says.
“We started fighting around the same age, eight or nine years old, so I always felt that maybe I could get as good as him some day.
“Being able to finally meet him when I was 15 was HUGE. I was starstruck! As if I was a teenage girl meeting Justin Bieber. Then when I went back a couple years later I actually got to train with him and since then we'd kept in contact until I graduated high school.
“I worked as a plumber and saved up my money so I could move to Holland, which is when he invited me to be part of Team Souwer. That was a dream come true for me. I jumped around the house like a little kid after we had that conversation.”
UFC featherweight champion Aldo is also a Souwer fan and for the last few years the two have trained together whenever they can. Aldo travels to Amsterdam to work out with the Team Souwer crew and sharpen his game. That is where Jauncey met and trained with him.
“Training with Jose Aldo is really great. Another great experience I owe to being part of Team Souwer. He is very explosive and his timing is impeccable. His timing and head movement isn't something you really notice from watching his fights but it is really impressive,” he says.
“I think he'd give any fighter, from featherweight to lightweight, trouble in GLORY. If he could focus on only his stand-up and not worry about his ground game for a while, he could be a big problem in the kickboxing circuit.”
Celebrity fighting names aside, Jauncey says his main hero and biggest influence can be found a lot closer to home.
“It’s definitely my father, Vincent Jauncey. I always looked up to him and wanted to fight like he did. He was a champion in Britain, Hong Kong and Macau. He never pushed me or my brother to fight or into kickboxing but when we decided we did want to fight, he was 100% behind us,” he says.
“He’s my main trainer and he knows me and my style better than anyone. Every time I come back to Vancouver after being away somewhere he helps me fuse my new techniques with my own style rather than completely adopting that other style.”
With the size and presence of the UFC on the North American continent, has Jauncey never been tempted to move his stand-up skills into MMA the way that fellow Canadian strikers such as Steven ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson have?
“No. I've stuck to kickboxing because it's what I love. My parents have always told us to always follow our passion and I've stuck to exactly that. Wrestling and BJJ are not my passions. I don't enjoy them,” he says.
“I like to stand and I like to hit. In kickboxing you can't tap. You get knocked out or you lose on points. You don't tap and say ‘Stop’ because it hurts.
“I respect MMA and I enjoy watching the good strikers of the sport - guys like Jose Aldo, Edson Barbosa - but it's not for me. I would, however, like to test the waters in professional boxing sometime down the road.”
Jauncey’s current road is about to be blocked this Saturday by a South African lightweight named Stevelmans.
Fighting out of the Vos Gym, Stevelmans has consistently displayed top-level skills yet never quite managed the consistency to crack the upper end of the rankings.
He represents a stiff test for Jauncey though. You only have to look at Stevelmens’ fights with Albert Kraus or Dzhabar Askerov under the GLORY banner to see what he can do on a good day.
“Hmmm. I suppose if you wanted to use that word you could say Warren has become what you'd call a ‘journeyman’. But he is still very dangerous and very experienced. He's a great fighter with great opponents on his record. The best actually,” says Jauncey.
“But unfortunately for him, he always came up short against most of the top guys. I grew up watching him fight so it's really an honor to fight him. Beating him will probably result in the happiest moment of my life - I really enjoy being happy.”
Fighters never like to look past their opponents but when pressed on the issue, Jauncey admits that he has given thought to his future operations on the GLORY battlefield. There’s a rematch he badly wants, and he also likes the idea of main-card slots.
“I hope after this fight the GLORY matchmakers won't hesitate to put me in Contender Tournaments and I'll be on main cards sooner than I'd ever expected. I think my style will draw a lot of attention. No matter the result it will be a highly entertaining fight,” he says.
“Also, after I win this fight, I'd love to get a rematch with #6 ranked Hinata. I lost a close decision to him last year in my third pro-fight due to a throw because it was under Shoot Boxing rules. I think under GLORY rules I could definitely beat him and go for his spot in the Top 10.”
GLORY 16 DENVER takes place this Saturday at the 1stBank Arena in Denver, Colorado. The main card hosts a four-man Heavyweight Contender Tournament and GLORY’s inaugural World Welterweight Title fight.
The event airs LIVE across the USA on SPIKE TV at 9pm ET/8PM CT and in over 150 territories worldwide.
