QUEANBEYAN trained kickboxer Josh Tonna wrote himself a letter he would one day win a world kickboxing title many years ago now, but on Saturday night he will finally get the chance to make his dream a reality.
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Tonna will fight former New Zealand 'King in the Ring' event champion David Aung in the International Sports Kickboxing Association feather weight world title fight, at Canberra's Hellenic Club in an event titled 'The Return of Bangin' Ben Edwards'.
The event will also see fellow Queanbeyan boxer Ben Edwards fight in his comeback from six months with injury, against Tafa Misipati, who is also from New Zealand, while four-time professional Queanbeyan fighter Filipe Ferreira will also fight.
But after seven years of fighting, which has already yielded a World Kickboxing Association Australian title and an ISKA South Pacific crown, Tonna said he hoped to finally realise his dream of holding a world title.
"I've been chasing this dream, and this fight, since I first started," Tonna said.
"I even wrote on a piece of paper, a future letter for myself, that I was going to be a world champion one day, and now I finally have the potential to reach that goal."
Tonna has been training at the Stockade gym in Dickson, ACT, since May this year but until then trained at Queanbeyan's Bulldog gym under his former coach, the late John Verran.
He said he would dedicate his fight to Verran - a man who told him he would one day be a "world beater".
"I remember after my first loss still being happy with the way I fought, but John told others 'Josh is a bit different to other fighters. He takes losses a bit harder, and one day he'll be a world beater'," Tonna said.
"So I'll be fighting this fight for him as well as my family."
Tonna has trained under current coach Gary Hamilton since May, and Hamilton said Tonna's uprise this year had shown him he could win the world title.
"He's got really good skills and he moves very well. His preparation has been very professional, and he showed that when he sparred Dane Beauchamp, who is one of the best lightweight kickboxers in the world, last weekend," he said.
Besides having a lot of emotion behind his fight, Tonna admitted it had been his training focus all year, and he had dramatically lifted the professional standard of his training to prepare for it.
He will carry plenty of good form into the fight having won a world amateur fighting event in England in August, as well as organising sparring bouts with interstate fighters, and linking with an Australian Institute of Sport strength and conditioning coach.
He sparred with Australian number one ranked lightweight kickboxer Beauchamp, who travelled to Canberra from Brisbane, and Tonna said that proved to be an inspiring session.
"I can tick him off the bucket list too. I've been watching him since I first started, and I've idolised him, so to share the ring was a big deal for me," he said.
Tonna has fought 28 times in his fighting career for an impressive 19 wins.