From No Man's Land to world title: Angelo Leo's road back to the championship
Angelo Leo has given Garry Jonas’ ProBox TV credit for rejuvenating his career that has seen him crowned IBF featherweight champion.
Leo won his title back in August with a contender for “Knockout of The Year” over Luis Alberto Lopez in his home city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Leo will now travel to the city of his opponent for the first defense of his IBF 126lbs belt. Leo will face off against Tomoki Kameda in Osaka, Japan, this Friday at the Intex Arena. The bout will be shown on the ProBox TV app with the action kicking off from 11pm Eastern Time.
Although it has been over nine months since Leo won the belt in August, the American has been relishing his time as world champion.
“It's been great, it's been great being a champion, it's everything I ever wanted and I'm loving it,” Leo told BS. “I'm loving it, I'm taking it in. Like I said, I'm appreciating and cherishing every moment. I'm getting recognized a lot more in the boxing scene, in the boxing world. You know, when I'm out and about, people recognize me at the fitness gyms, going shopping and stuff like that. I'll get recognized here and there.”
Leo, a former beltholder at junior featherweight, found his career at a crossroads after losing his WBO title to Stephen Fulton back in 2021, and being left in the boxing wilderness after a routine win over Aaron Alameda five months later. Leo was left in no-man’s land, having not fought in two years. It was then he decided to link up with Jonas’ ProBox TV in order to kickstart his career.
Jonas’ ProBox TV offered Leo an opportunity to fight regularly in competitive bouts and he has been reaping the rewards ever since.
“Yeah, they've been very important, they really revitalized my career when it was at a standstill,” Leo said. “I got to thank Garry Jonas and all of ProBox for helping me do that, and really putting me back on the scene and putting me back on the map as far as the boxing scene, I got to thank them a lot for that.
“As you can see, before I got into ProBox I really didn't know about them until they told me, ‘Hey, there's ProBox TV’, and then I looked it up and it kind of reminded me of the days of Solo Boxeo, Friday Night Fights and all that. So I was like, ‘Yeah, I'm definitely for it’, it seems like they're boxing oriented only, they're not about the show or anything like that, they're just strictly boxing and getting these fighters fights and putting on 50-50 competitive fights. I was all for it considering that I hadn't fought in two years. I was ready to get back in that ring, and ProBox TV was the perfect platform.”
Leo doesn’t only credit Jonas’ ProBox TV for his recent rise in form; the now-featherweight champion believes stepping up to 126lbs has allowed him to really get the best out of himself.
“Oh, it's made a big difference, you know, it's paid a lot of dividends in my performance,” Leo said. “As you can see, I've had four fights in the featherweight division and three of them were by knockout – so that's a pretty good percentage. I just think that at 122, I was weight drained, I didn't have the snap in my punches, but now at 126 I feel a lot better, a lot stronger, and I'm able to rehydrate a lot better.”
