There was a moment in the ring on Saturday when Luan Veras thought he might lose a fight for the first time.
In the first round against Micah Michaels, things weren’t going well for the 15-year-old Islington boxing star.
But he would go on to finish the match in style, defeating Michaels 4-1, winning the London Junior Championship Under-66kg title on 7 March.
“I didn’t know,” Veras admits. “When I start a fight I try to feel my partner out first, before I go into anything crazy.
“And as soon as I know how he is in the ring, then I’ll start with pressure in the second round.
“So I started to jab to see what his reaction would be.”
When Veras had detected Michaels’ weak spots, he began working harder in the second and third rounds.
“I felt like I was really putting pressure on him and I knew I was putting him on the ropes,” he says. “I knew I was on the front foot.”
So far, the young athlete has yet to lose a professional match.
Because of Saturday’s result, he received a walkover to the national quarter-finals in Sudbury on Sunday 15 March, which he is currently preparing for.
Veras has trained for a year at Islington Boxing Club, where I meet him.
He looks tired but exhilarated from training, and he’s sporting a bruise under his left eye – “from karate”, he says.
Veras, who counts Antony Joshua and Floyd Mayweather as two of his boxing idols, comes from a “fighting family”. He and his two younger brothers Liam and Luca do karate, judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and, of course, boxing. Both his parents have black belts in karate, and his father runs a karate association.
I ask Veras if he likes to have fights with his brothers – which I assume he would comfortably win, given his seniority.
“Sometimes when I come home, I’ll put on my gloves and we’ll fight for fun,” he says, grinning.
The Veras brothers share a Facebook page with over 1,500 likes, which posts videos of the boys and news of their achievements.
“Luan, Liam and Luca have represented their father’s karate association since they were aged 5 at local, national and international level,” the page reads.
“They have all … shown great character and ability, winning numerous major titles around Europe. With the right support and coaching they hope to become Olympic and World Class Champions.”
Veras used to attend two different boxing clubs, but left because they were too far away from home. He now trains “every day, usually for two to four hours.”
I ask him how he manages to balance this with his studies at Highgate Wood School.
“I’m nervous about my GCSEs,” he admits. “I just try to pay more attention in school, and I try to finish my homework. Whenever I get home I just train.”
He has to work hard, although he sometimes gets frustrated when his teachers don’t let him travel far for matches.
How does he unwind after a long school day? “Training makes me feel good. I love it.”
Punching other people – and, on occasion, being punched – doesn’t sound like the most relaxing thing to me, I tell him. Does it hurt a lot?
“Yes, once the fight is finished”, he says, gesturing at his bruise. “When the adrenalin kicks in it doesn’t hurt – but it’s sore after.”
Veras is excited for Sunday’s quarter-final. I ask him if he ever gets nervous before fights begin.
“Yeah, sometimes I get butterflies,” he shrugs.
“But as soon as I start warming up, I go into fight mode – and they go away.”
Veras went on to win the quarter-final on Sunday but he won’t be boxing again anytime soon as the next round has been postponed due to the coronavirus.
