Australian IBF #3 Featherweight Joel Brunker Training in NYC for Selby Showdown
Australian featherweight “Aussie” Joel Brunker (27-0, 15 KOs) is determined to win his upcoming IBF Elimination bout and is willing to go around the world to do it.
Brunker, rated IBF #3, will face Selby (19-1, 7 KOs), rated IBF #6, on October 11 at the O2 Arena in London, England, for the right to become the next mandatory challenger to champion Evgeny Gradovich.
To ensure himself the best training camp possible, Brunker flew to New York on September 14 and is spending his final month of training in the area’s best gyms, sparring with world-class fighters.
“I’ve never had a fighter so dedicated,” said Brunker’s co-promoter, Greg Cohen of Greg Cohen Promotions (along with Adam Wilcock of Fight Card Promotions). “To do something like this really shows he’s putting it all out there and giving himself the best chance to win this fight.”
Brunker, who knows what it takes to win at the world level after competing at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, has been working out of Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn, House of Pain in Newark and Church Street Gym in Lower Manhattan, among others, trading punches with the likes of Wanzell Ellison, Jorge Diaz and Gary Stark Jr.
“Joel wants this more than anything,” continued Cohen. “He knew he couldn’t get the right work in Australia, so he took the 22-hour flight to get here. I didn’t ask him to do that; he asked me! And the results are already quite evident. He’s learning a lot from working with so many top contenders and is looking extremely sharp and ready. Lee Selby is not going to know what hit him that night. My partner, Adam Wilcock, and I are extremely proud of his efforts.”
