From watching Marvel movies to getting into the ring himself, Junior Henry Sun has had an interest in mixed martial arts (MMA) since he was a kid. And now, Sun’s actively engaging with that interest through sparring.
Even though Sun has only been doing MMA for two years now, it has quickly become his main sport.
“I didn’t really have a sport I was doing during the offseason of baseball,” Sun said. “I started watching and following UFC, and I thought that it would be fun to get into it.”
MMA is an extreme contact sport, which makes participating in it extremely risky.
“The risk of brain injuries is super high,” Sun said. “My parents won’t let me compete yet, so I just help train the other fighters at my gym.”
Sun’s passion for martial arts isn’t limited to just training though. At the school, he is also president of the Martial Arts Club, where he hopes to popularize the sport among his classmates.
Although he hasn’t started competing yet, Sun has still been training for about two years now, and he doesn’t plan on stopping.
“I’ll definitely keep training in college, but I wouldn’t want to become a fighter,” Sun said. “To be a fighter you have to go all in and train all the time, but even then I probably wouldn’t make a lot of money and it’s not really worth the risk.”
Recently, Sun has been sparring with fighters from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the biggest international martial arts organization in the world.
“Over the summer, I got to go to a sparring session with Brandon Moreno, the UFC flyweight champion at the time,” Sun said. “My personal coach, Damon Jackson, had also competed in the UFC.”
Being able to spar with the best of the best in the world was a very humbling experience for Sun, as they beat him up pretty bad. However, it showed him how much more he had to learn.
Besides MMA, Sun also plays baseball and wrestles for St. Marks. Despite his outside commitment, he understands his responsibilities to both of those teams.
“I would say my main sport is MMA, but I always prioritize a St. Marks sport if there’s a scheduling conflict,” Sun said.
