Not fighting in almost two years was the most frustrating time for Juan Roux, especially after he lost his South African heavyweight title to Joshua Pretorius, who then surrendered it to Chris Thompson.
The latter later lost the title to reigning champion Keaton Gomes as the SA heavyweight title changed hands six times between 2020 and 2023.
Now Cape Town-based Roux will return to action when he climbs into the ring to fight against an as-yet-to-be confirmed opponent in March.
“I’m returning soon even though we have not signed a contract. We are still looking at a few options. Hopefully, this year I can get my title back. I need one or two fights before I challenge for the SA title,” Roux said.
The 26-year-old Roux has not fought since he lost the SA crown to Pretorius at the Emperor’s Palace in Kempton Park in March 2022.
“I was extremely frustrated. It’s been a hard road because I had to get two operations in my hand. There was a small fracture in my hand, which caused a few issues,” Roux remarked.
“Then we went to fix the root cause of the problem and that operation went well. In the recovery process, something broke again, which meant I needed to undergo another operation. They fused four bones into one in my wrist. It was an extremely big operation.”
Apparently, Roux got a fracture before his fight against Pretorius and he carried on as if nothing had happened.
“My performance was shocking in that fight whether my hand was broken or not. I don’t want to make any excuses. I just want to ensure people that I won’t have a shocking performance again,” Roux said.
