Joshua Feldman on the Senga Fight

About an hour or so after his unanimous decision victory over Jonas Senga this past Friday, Joshua Feldman seemed to be a bit disappointed in his performance. He felt he could've done better and stopped his opponent.

Asked about why he felt he could've stopped Senga, Feldman told The Jewish Boxing Blog, "I don't know if he didn't want to be there, but I just felt like I wanted to be there more.

"There was a point where I hurt him to the body and I heard him go like [grunt]. I heard him exhale very loudly. It was those kind of moments where if I pushed the gas maybe a little bit more and went downstairs more, I could've forced the stoppage. It would've been hard to put him down. I just don't think he was the type of guy to actually go down. But the ref could've stepped in if I pushed the gas a little bit more."

That very well might be true as Senga visibly tired during the second half of the fight, but he was still dangerous throughout. After watching the fight later, Feldman's assessment changed. 

"It would've been stupid to risk pressing the gas too much in the last round and maybe get knocked out or hurt, because he was a big puncher. I knew if I just boxed and used my jab in the last round, I would've got the win on points."

Feldman played it right. Up big on the cards against a tough guy with power, there was no sense in taking a reckless chance in the hopes that the referee might jump in to stop the fight.  The 20 year old junior middleweight from Cape Town understands this, "I can't afford to lose this early in my career."

To begin the fight, Feldman quickly decided to box Senga, a fellow southpaw. He stayed with that strategy most of the way. "Even though he was a southpaw and he was a smart boxer, I knew that my boxing skills are better than his," Feldman said. "There were times when I was setting him up with little traps and he was falling for it. I knew I could easily outbox this guy even though he's very strong. I felt I was in a little better condition than him, so that if my output was more and I didn't let him hit me, I was just going to coast through the rounds."

But there were times Senga was able to land flush counters. Feldman took the shots well and appeared unfazed by the blows. When complimented on his chin, Feldman sheepishly replied, "No boxer wants to say they have a good chin; it's not something I'm proud of." That's because he doesn't want it to be tested. "I do know I've taken some big shots in sparring and in a couple of fights. I've never gone down from a headshot," he said. "I definitely trust my chin a lot."

The Senga fight wasn't the first time his chin has been put to the test. He got plenty of hard sparring at the Blood, Sweat, and Tears Gym in Cape Town, and now gets those tough sparring sessions at the Hot Box Gym in Johannesburg.

"I knew that he hit very hard," Feldman said of Senga. "I did think that if he lands clean he could hurt me, but never in the fight was I hurt."

With the win, Feldman is now 6-0 with 3 KOs. He hopes to have an active year in the ring. As Josh says, It's "on to the next."