Joliet’s ‘Jojo the Boxer’ wins Chicago Golden Glove in his class

A young Joliet boxer became a winner once again during his first Chicago Golden Gloves competition.

Joseph Awinongya Jr., 16, of Joliet, also known as “Jojo the Boxer,” won the junior open in his weight class (165 pounds) in the Chicago competition.

The Chicago Golden Gloves is the “largest and longest running non-national boxing tournament in America,” according to its website.

Awinongya Jr. said he had “just gotten around that age for Golden Gloves” and competed in the boxing tournament at his first opportunity.

“It’s a great experience because I normally don’t get to fight that much in my hometown of Chicago and Joliet and having my supporters come out,” Awinongya Jr. said, adding he doesn’t usually have that type of local support at national tournaments. “Hearing the crowd was another surreal feeling.”

Awinongya Jr. is also the 2023 national champion for Team USA. As a result, he heads out to California at the end of April to spend two weeks in a Team USA junior training camp, he said.

A four-time Junior Olympics champion, Awinongya Jr. said his next big goal is the 2028 Olympics.

“By then, I’ll most likely have some professional bouts under my record,” Awinongya Jr. said.

His love for excellence in boxing comes from his father and primary trainer Joseph Awinongya Sr., who came from Ghana, was a professional boxer and owned the former Will County Boxing Gym on Scott Street in Joliet from 2009 to 2013.

According to a 2017 Herald-News story, Joseph Awinongya Sr. was signed to a professional contract by Don King and compiled a 12-9-5 record with three knockouts as a cruiserweight known as “The African Assassin.”

By 2017, Awinongya Jr. had competed 13 times. He was just 9 years old at that point.

“He started wrestling when he was 2,” Joseph Awinongya Sr. said in 2017. “When he was 4, he said, ‘Daddy, I want to box.’ I told him, ‘You don’t want to do that, it’s hard.’ But he wanted it, and he’s doing very well up to now.”

Although boxing is a huge part of Awinongya Jr.’s life, it’s not the only part.

Awinongya Jr. has already earned an associate’s degree from Joliet Junior College and entered the University of St. Francis in Joliet the fall 2023 as a junior on full tuition. He is currently studying marketing and plans to graduate with his bachelor’s degree in spring 2025, he said.

Although Awinongya Jr. had preciously considered majoring in nursing – his mother Valerie Ayertey is a nurse – he feels marketing is a more practical approach – for now – since he can’t give his full attention to boxing and getting his student nursing clinicals done, he said,

Marketing just made more sense, he said. And to advance as a professional boxer, he needs to understand marketing, he said.

“That’s how boxers make their pay,” Awinongya Jr. said. “Marketing is what makes you seen. People getting into the greater limelight need to be able to market themselves better.”

Awinongya Jr. said he’d like to “make myself into the next big thing using my skills” because that is where he will find “his greatest happiness.”

And not just for himself, he added. Awinongya Jr. hopes that if he can make a name for himself, he can one day use that name to help others. Because ultimately, Awinongya Jr. just wants to help others, either with boxing or nursing, he said.

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“It depends on how well I’m able to leverage my boxing and use that to fund me the rest of my life,” Awinongya Jr. said.

Getting enough sleep during tournaments and test-taking times is challenging, he said. But with good time management and help from his parents, Awinongya Jr. said he’s successful most of the time.

“The opportunities that people gave me – I don’t want to let that go,” Awinongya Jr. said. “I’m trying my best to be the best that I can.”