{"id":446300,"date":"2026-02-01T01:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T01:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/446300\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T01:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T01:39:13","slug":"leo-atang-1000-percent-sure-he-will-be-undisputed-heavyweight-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/446300\/","title":{"rendered":"Leo Atang \u201c1000 Percent Sure\u201d He Will Be Undisputed Heavyweight Champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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But will Atang be extended beyond the first-round this time? Wondering this and other things, pundit\/broadcaster Adam Smith paid a visit to York and to Atang\u2019s gym to find out, for a feature on his \u2018The Voice of Boxing\u2019 podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved AJ [when I started boxing] \u2013 he was the man on TV,\u201d Atang tells Smith in the video. \u201cBut when I got more into boxing and I understood it more, I started to watch more of the lighter fighters, trying to take bits of their game. I like watching older fighters as well, like Evander Holyfield, who was a smaller heavyweight in his generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atang \u2013 who compiled a fine amateur career during which he won, amongst other things, a gold at the European Youth Boxing Championships in 2024, and a gold at the European Junior Championships the year before \u2013 says he has the heart needed to match his skills and that his ability to dig down deep will be a key element in his getting all the way to the very top. Also, Atang says he wants to box his career \u201cthe traditional way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanna keep learning, getting different, harder opponents, more rounds under my belt,\u201d Leo says. \u201cAnd I definitely want to do it the traditional way. You know, win each title and then, when that world title comes, it will be all the sweeter. I\u2019ve got a lot of heart. I will dig deep. If it has to be a fight, I\u2019ll make it a fight. If a war has to happen, I\u2019m more than happy to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Really, the sky does seem to be the limit as far as Atang\u2019s promising career is concerned. Having been snapped up by Eddie Hearn, who is, as we know, chief among those people who are referring to Atang as \u201cthe next AJ,\u201d Atang is, above all, enjoying the journey he is on. Stardom, Atang says, is way down his list of goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not trying to force being some massive celebrity or anything, I don\u2019t think I\u2019d really want that. As long as I can get to the top of the sport where I wanna be, that\u2019s all that matters to me,\u201d Leo says. \u201cI\u2019d love to spar all the big names, because they\u2019ve all got different styles. I\u2019d love go to America and spar with all of them. I\u2019d love to go to the Eastern European camps. I\u2019d love to spar the main man, [Oleksandr] Usyk. That\u2019d be unreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the big question: can and will Atang rule the heavyweight division one day?<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be undisputed heavyweight champion. Honestly. I feel like it\u2019d be a waste of time if I didn\u2019t want to do that,\u201d Atang says. \u201cSome people have goals to be British [champion], some have goals to be English, and hats off to them. But that\u2019s just not me. If I\u2019m gonna do it, I\u2019m gonna do it properly. And, yeah, I wanna be world champion, with all the belts one day. I\u2019m giving everything I can, so if I can\u2019t, that\u2019s in God\u2019s hands. 1000 percent [I will be undisputed heavyweight champion.]\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up comes Atang\u2019s first fight of 2026, his fourth bout since going pro in July of last year, and the Boucetta fight that is, perhaps optimistically, scheduled for four-rounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But will Atang be extended beyond the first-round this time? Wondering this and other things, pundit\/broadcaster Adam Smith…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-446300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}