A local fighter will soon enter the ring in London to give it his all in a bare-knuckle boxing match at The O2 arena.
Squamish-based fighter, Sonny Smith, will face either Scott McHugh, Aaron Sinclair or Jonny Lawson, as the matches will be determined the day of the fight on Saturday, July 29. The winners of the fights will go on to face each other in the final bout in Thailand in December.
Bare knuckle boxing is exactly what it sounds like, a boxing match with no gloves.
“It's just exciting, fast-paced and quite brutal to be honest,” said Smith about bare knuckle boxing. “It's quite an exciting, very fast-growing sport.”
Smith has been training locally with Squamish UFC veteran, Cole Smith, at his and Candace Fan’s recently opened gym called Roundhouse Martial Arts and Fitness.
“He's taken me under his wing basically,” said Smith about Cole Smith. “He’s been coaching me one on one, got a lot of sparring in.”
“It’s been amazing,” he continued.
Smith is no newcomer to the ring, however, having been into fighting sports since he was young.
“I've always been into fighting and mixed martial arts and I boxed when I was a kid,” he said.
Smith said this particular fight has some added challenges since he won’t know his opponent until the day of the match and there’s a several-hour time change that he needs to adjust to as he heads overseas on July 26.
“I'm always visualizing fighting the opponent,” he said of his training. “So this one I've had three people to visualize.”
Additionally, Smith said to prepare he has to review tape of his opponent’s previous fights in an effort to learn their fighting tendencies to formulate a gameplan.
For McHugh and Lawson this has proved to be a bit easier as they have eight and 10 fights under their belts, but Sinclair only has one so far.
Regardless of who he’s matching up against, Smith said he feels “ready.”
Squamish locals will be able to view the fight online at Fite TV, which starts the card at 11 a.m. local time and should air for several hours. The exact time of each of the fights on the card should be released on July 29.
Barring injury, Smith said he hopes to fight again in London in September. And, if all goes well, he’ll be heading to Thailand in December for the finale.
For more information about Smith and the upcoming fight, visit his Instagram page.
