Anthony Young says 'I'm not coming to lay down' versus Alexis Rocha

Anthony 'Juice' Young faces top welterweight contender Alexis Rocha as the main event on Saturday's Golden Boy Promotions card.

Although Saturday will be filled with boxing cards, only one has the prime-time slot on DAZN, which will take place at the Fantasy Springs Resort & Casino in Indio, CA, and hosted by Golden Boy Promotions. WBO NABO welterweight champion Alexis Rocha (22-1) takes on the crafty veteran Anthony ‘Juice’ Young (24-2) in a fight scheduled for 10 rounds or less. Rocha was waiting to face WBO champion Terence Crawford, but once it was clear that he was still looking at fighting unified champion Errol Spence Jr., Rocha decided to take a fight in between until the dust settled. 

Young is a person that has always been an athlete but also a fighter that took on the sport later than most. Although he was born in Atlantic City, NJ, Young was raised in nearby Pleasantville, NJ, which was like a suburb during those times but now a little rougher, as he put it at the beginning of our conversation.

Young is the oldest of six and has no complaints about his childhood. Young told FanSidedMMA, “I had a good childhood; I grew up with my mom and grandparents. I played sports, baseball, football, and basketball. Baseball was my first love, and I was really good at that.

Young continued, “I went to college and got hurt but was always a fan of boxing. When I tried to get back into school after getting hurt, I had some difficulty, so I decided to box. I started boxing when I was 19, which was late. I was terrible at first and didn’t really like it. Both my parents didn’t raise no quitter, so I wasn’t going to quit something I started, so I stuck with it. I progressively got better, and here I am today.”

Alexis Rocha vs. Anthony 'Juice' Young will stream live on DAZN

With boxing, almost every fighter has a nickname, and Young is no different. “My nickname is actually ‘Chocolate’ then ‘Juice’ came about when I was playing baseball in Atlantic City. People from Atlantic City call me ‘Juice,’ and people from Pleasantville call me ‘Choc(late).’ The ‘Chocolate’ came from when I was born; I was the darkest out of my Mexican & Puerto Rican side of the family. So to them, I was ‘Chocolate.’

Shifting gears to the boxing side of things, Young went into the training camp intensifying everything he did. Young told FanSidedMMA, “If I’m hitting the bag for eight rounds, then I was hitting it for twelve. If I’m running three miles, then I’m running four. I just picked everything up. I trained at my home base gym at TKO Fitness in Cherry Hill, NJ., which is about 45 minutes from the gym in Philly where my Trainer is based, so we just meet in Cherry Hill.”

Young knows that Rocha is coming to make a statement on Saturday but will look to play spoiler as he did when he stopped former junior middleweight champion Sadam Ali in May 2019. “He is trying to get me up out of there to go onto his plans, but I’m here to spoil those. Unfortunately for him, he is going back to the same arena he took his first loss in. After this fight, he will tell Golden Boy, ‘I don’t want to fight there anymore.’

Towards the end of the call, Young had a message for those tuning in that may or may not have seen him fight as he has predominantly been on the east coast. Young told FanSidedMMA, “I’m coming to work and to win. They can expect me to leave everything out there in that ring. I’m not coming to lay down; I’m coming to win. Stay tuned. I shocked the world once before, and I will do it again.”