Joseph Awinongya Jr. has won his 25^th USA National title and he is now planning to represent America at the next Olympic Games to be hosted in Los Angeles.

About eight years ago, Yours Truly predicted to his dad that his son will make it to the Olympic Games and the dream is shaping up to be realized.

The Joliet resident Jojo The boxer has been selected into Team USA as a nationally ranked champion and an Olympic hopeful is training relentlessly to bring home the gold at the 2028 Olympics.

Now 18-year-old Joseph "Jojo" Awinonyga Jr was groomed from 5 years by his father, an ex-professional boxer who became a coach after moving from Ghana, to the USA.

Awinongya Sr. has been the inspiration and motivation of Awinongya Jr. and they have trained from infancy to adulthood and now the latter is a super star not only in the USA but internationally. He has been to his motherland, Ghana to inspire other youth and he is moving on.

"When it comes to making the team, I personally still need to find out what weight class I'm aiming to go for, but right now, my goal is at 176 (lbs), my parents feel the best place for me is 198. I feel right now around 60 percent of the way there. The main things that I will need to do is when I do reach the elite level, which is coming up in a couple of months, that I will be winning those international tournaments concurrently and just staying consistent and the main goal - don't lose."

Awinonyga will be flying to Germany in July as he continues in his relentless pursuit of making the 2028 U.S. Olympics boxing team. After boxing in Germany, Jojo told Joliet Patch he will head to Canada in late September for more boxing competitions as he sets his sights on the U.S. Olympics.

The integral member of the USA Boxing Youth team will be competing in the World Boxing youth championship.

In Brandenburg, Germany he will contest for another international cup that will have multiple different nations come out to the country of Germany

Many Joliet residents and their Mayor Terry D'Arcy are so proud Joseph "Jojo" Awinongya Jr, as a escalating boxing star representing Team USA. As a nationally ranked champion and an Olympic hopeful, Jojo is training relentlessly to bring home the gold at the 2028 Olympics.

For his family, friends, fans and media who do boxing in Ghana, what they do often is pray for their son and brother to beat every opponent and make history as an Olympic Gold winner.

Awinongya Jr. has met some boxing greats and the latest is Andrew Tabiti who was in Ghana to win the WBC Africa Bridgerweight belt. They met at the USA Boxing Junior Olympics and Summer festival.

By Sammy Heywood Okine