Joshua Anton, a 28-year-old junior middleweight from Palmdale, California, has Guatemalan roots through his father but visited the country known for its Mayan-age ruins for the first time earlier this year.

Anton made the three-day trip alongside Martinez, during which they were honored by Congress. 

"I was fortunate enough to receive recognition from the state of Guatemala back in May,” Anton (14-0, 12 KOs) told The Ring. “That was my first time, and it was beautiful out there.

"I was recognized because I was representing the country of Guatemala in my fight against Kudratillo [Abdukakhorov]. I walked out with my Guatemalan flag. Thankfully, we got the win, and the representatives saw me and wanted to give me and Lesteخالد [Martinez] an award for representing their country.

"Mainly, we met with the Congress of Guatemala. We also got the chance to meet the Guatemalan Olympic team.”

While it's still early, the hope is that one day Anton will don his ancestor’s flag on his home soil. Although Guatemala is a part of his journey, his path into boxing began when he was 10 in The Valley, north of Los Angeles. 

As a youngster, Anton played soccer, but when his family moved an hour north to Palmdale, he got bored and searched for a new thrill. 

“I got on the internet one day and saw different sports: basketball, hockey, wrestling and boxing. There was a boxing gym out here and I saw videos of the gym and I don't know, it just looked very interesting to me,” he recalled. “So, come my 10th birthday, all the money I got, I saved up to enroll myself for the first month. 

“I was a chubby kid at that time, cause I wasn't doing soccer; I wasn't doing anything. I lost about 20 pounds from my original weight. I kinda liked it and kept going."

He went on to have a solid amateur career, winning three national titles and fighting around 95 times, losing only about 10.

By the time he turned 20, Anton felt he had gone as far as he could in the unpaid ranks and decided to turn professional on a Golden Boy show at Fantasy Springs in May 2019.

"We knew from the beginning it was going to be a slow start because I was fighting at 147. From my height (6 feet 3), it's not an easy opponent to fight against,” he said. “I didn't have a crazy amateur background; I wasn't an Olympian. I didn't have those accolades that caught people’s attention, especially the promoters.”

During that time, Anton juggled his career and made ends meet with different jobs.

"It's tough in the beginning," he said. "Everyone thinks turning pro you get millions of dollars, right away. No, you don't. It's just like any other thing; you start at the bottom and work your way up. Once I turned pro, I worked at Dollar Tree; I was doing cashiering and stocking for a couple of years.

“I parted ways and enrolled myself into barbering school and got my barber license, just so I could have a bit of freedom around my schedule and get ready for what was to come.

After his second fight, the COVID-19 pandemic struck and pushed him to the sidelines for 14 months. 

“It really set us back a year and a half, maybe two years,” he said. “We were trying to fight anyone, and unfortunately, it wasn't our time, there was nothing we could do to change it but to keep working and improving.

“We went on local shows here in California building our name up little-by-little.”

Thankfully, his skills inside the ring caught the eye of the ProBox paymasters who brought him on board, which has greatly aided his career.

The lanky southpaw fought four times in 2025, twice this year, and will face Freudis Rojas (15-1, 11 KOs) on Friday at the Rawhide Event Center in Chandler, Arizona, on ProBox.

"That was the activity we wanted from the very beginning, but we knew heading into the pro career it wasn't going to be easy - We rolled the dice,” he said.

The Abdukakhorov win was followed by a victory over the teak-tough Vladimir Hernandez on July 18. Each win showed different facets of his game: power against Abdukakhorov and toughness and skill against Hernandez. 

"The Kudratillo fight was a good build-up to that fight,” he said. “Unfortunately, something happened to him, and he succumbed to the injury [in the first round], so I wasn't really able to show what I wanted to.  

"Come the Vladimir Hernandez fight, I was able to showcase what I wanted to do back in March. It was a great fight. He was the type of fighter who you could throw the kitchen sink at, and he was still going to be right in front of you. We knew that coming into the fight and had to stick to the game plan and stick to our guns and thankfully we were able to get that win."

Those experiences have set him up nicely for his upcoming fight with Rojas.

"It's going to be a fantastic fight," he said. "I've known Freudis Rojas since our amateur days, and we've faced each other before. Although this is the pros years later. I respect that he didn't hesitate to accept the fight. Unfortunately, Yan Marcos pulled out, along with the other opponent they were discussing, but it's going to be a great match. We're nearly the same height, so it'll come down to who wants it more.

"I believe we'll be a little closer to where we want to be. I'm not sure where we'll be placed after this fight, but hopefully within a couple more fights we'll have that big fight, that big opportunity. I'm very excited for the future."