Josh Jauncey (26-8, 15 KO's) is aiming to take his first shot at the GLORY lightweight title towards the end of this year.
The Canadian lightweight won by stoppage at last weekend's GLORY 40 COPENHAGEN to start his 2017 campaign in style. A knee strike in the second round opened a huge cut along the jawline of Antonio Gomez (50-8-2, 29 KO's) which caused the ringside doctor to step in and end the fight.
“I would have liked for the fight to go on because he was already on wobbly legs - there was one point earlier where he had a knee on the ground and should have definitely had an eight count, but the referee didn't give him one,” he says.
“If I had known the referee wasn't going to jump in I would have kneed him in the head on the way down, but I was being nice!
“It's not usual for a fight to be stopped for a cut that is not affecting the vision but obviously the doctor thought it was that bad, so he stopped it. I would have preferred to have got the knockout but I will take the win however it comes.”
Is that knee strike one of the lightweight division's most dangerous weapons right now? Jauncey thinks it might be. “I reckon it is,” he says. “I have got good timing on it and I can get my knee up [to head height] easy and I love to throw it. I am good at catching people with it.”
Having started the year with a win, Jauncey now looks forward to his next contest. On previous occasions he has called out the likes of Giorgio Petrosyan, an audacious move but one which did not result in a win. This time he is heeding his team's calls for him not to call people out in the heat of his post-fight mindset.
“I want to get back in there as soon as possible but I don't want to call anyone out, I am going to leave it to my manager to arrange my next match because in the past I have opened my mouth and got myself a fight which wasn't necessarily the best for my career,” he laughs.
“But I will say that by the end of this year or early next year I would like to be challenging for the title.”
GLORY's next event takes later this month in the Netherlands. Heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven is in the headline slot as he faces domestic champion Ismael Lazaar in the main event of GLORY 41 HOLLAND – click here for tickets.
