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Add FightsATW on GoogleIt’s fight week in Detroit, Michigan, which means the Jonny Mansour show has rolled into town. Mansour fights live from the Fox Theater on Wynn Records Network on Saturday, August 29. Mansour will face his toughest test to date as he takes on the undefeated Richard Segura (7-0, 2 KOs) in what will be Mansour’s second eight-round fight. With Mansour’s events getting bigger and bigger, all the pressure is on the 26-year-old to deliver each time, and according to him, he’s ready for it all.
If you follow Mansour (7-0, 2 KOs) on social media, you can see that he is everywhere, capitalizing on every opportunity presented to him to promote himself. Although he’s had to continue dealing with his mother’s passing on a consistent basis, Mansour feels that everything that has occurred in his career as a fighter has been meant to be and from a higher power.
“Everything has been amazing,” Mansour told FightsATW. “It’s been a great journey. Just fulfilling my dreams and taking one step toward my goals every single day. I’ve been really involved with the community, traveling to different areas and doing what I can outside the ring to contribute to the younger generation.”
Mansour later added, “I’ve sacrificed a lot for the sport of boxing. God gave me a gift, and I’m not here to waste it.”
As Mansour looks to explore everything surrounding the sport, that also means starting a promotional company with his cousin Julius ‘Ju Ju’ Ballo (3-0) called G2G Promotions. In April, the cousins put on their own show in Oceanside, California, with a reported 5,000-plus fans in attendance to see the two fight in separate bouts. Although they both won, the lessons learned as promoters were significant, as the work to put on an event can be just as difficult as preparing for a fight.
That April night was an experience Mansour cherishes as a fighter and a promoter.
“[In the ring] I learned to sit down on my punches,” said Mansour. “That was my first eight-round fight, and I felt great. I felt like this was something I’d been working for my entire life. I’ve always been a long-distance fighter. I feel like showing and proving that I can fight every minute of every round for eight rounds was a great statement. I felt better as the rounds went on.”
“As a promoter, I learned that there are a lot of expenses that come with this. You get thrown all these different expenses from everything and everybody. Learning the expenses of boxing as a business is the first step in realizing how to operate it at its finest. Realizing what fighters are profitable, know how to promote, are well-spoken, and know how to entertain the crowd and sell tickets. It’s the style and entertainment nowadays that promoters look for. Being able to promote my last show taught me a lot.”
With experience hosting a show, G2G Promotions is partnering with Salita Promotions for Saturday’s fight at the Fox Theater. Given the Chaldean community in Detroit, which Mansour says is double the size of San Diego’s, it only made sense to hold the fight there. Mansour will face Segura, who has an identical record and poses a threat to Mansour’s undefeated record. With that said, Mansour didn’t feel the need to change anything other than to extend the things he has already been doing with his team.
“Honestly, keeping it the same [throughout training camp]. My team has been keeping me sharp. More sparring partners. More rounds. [I’ve been] pushing more toward distance in everything I do. Longer training sessions. Longer running times. All the details.”
On Saturday night, Mansour looks to put on a show for all the fans coming to see him fight. So what should fans attending the show, live or watching it on Wynn Records Network, expect from him? “They should expect the biggest fight of my career,” said Mansour. “I’m fighting another guy who is 7-0 with two knockouts, just like me. They should expect the greatest performance yet. I feel like the better fighters I fight, the better I perform.”
Mansour is doing all the hard work himself, handling show hosting and finding opponents. That will only get you so far, and eventually he’ll have to either sign with or partner with a major promoter. According to Mansour, he’s in no rush to sign with a promoter, as it all has to make sense for him to do so.
“Whatever God has planned. I would love to work with a promoter, whether it’s putting on my own hat or working with someone else. Whoever I work with in the boxing business, they gotta see the vision. I didn’t start boxing for the money.
“To me, I started boxing to follow my dreams, to chase the passion of becoming a world champion and a promise I made to my late mother. So whatever promoter is willing to put in front of me the roadmap of how to accomplish my dreams as a world champion, that’s the promoter I’m looking for.
“As of right now, I’m wearing my own hat and betting it all on myself.”
We’ll see how far Mansour’s journey goes, whether he continues to showcase his talents as an independent or as part of a major promoter. Right now, the focus is getting past Saturday night, which isn’t an easy task.
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