Jeff Page Jr. returns to Wichita for bout

From north of the border to down under, Andover native Jeff Page Jr.’s up-and-coming boxing career has taken him all over the world in the last year.

Saturday, he brings it back home with a super middleweight fight against Andrew Hernandez at Beech Activity Center. It’s his third fight since losing to light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev on a nationally-televised fight in Quebec last December and only his second fight as a super middleweight.

Page, a former linebacker at Butler Community College, is down to 168 pounds and has an overall record of 17-1 with 11 knockouts. Hernandez, from Phoenix, is 9-2.

“(Hernandez) is a solid boxer, I just don’t feel like he’s on the level I am right now,” Page said. “He’s not as strong as I am, he’s not as fast as I am and he definitely can’t punch as hard as I can. My mindset is to go in there and destroy him.”

Page’s confidence is well-earned. Twice in the past year, he’s spent time training with the world’s best. First, with unified middleweight world champion Gennady Golovkin in Big Bear, Calif., leading up to the Beterbiev fight. In the time since, Golovkin has become one of the world’s most marketable boxers, even signing an endorsement deal with Apple.

“Just a nice, humble guy,” Page said. “On his birthday, he took everyone out, if you can believe that. On his own birthday.”

Page spent almost all of September and part of October away from home when Australian boxer Blake Caparello’s team recruited him to come train with Caparello for 25 days ahead of a fight that never even materialized.

Caparello won the IBO light heavyweight title in 2013 and lost in a WBO light heavyweight world title fight against Sergey Kovalev last summer.

“(Caparello) was trying to switch it up a little, change styles,” Page said. “Everything there was awesome, they took amazing care of me while I was there. Toward the end, I started to miss my family, though, so it was nice to get back to Kansas.”

Back home with his wife, Damen, 2-year-old son Jeff III and daughter Khloee, 11 months.

“That’s what’s always been important to me,” Page said. “That’s what I’m still fighting for. My family.”

Tickets for Saturday night start at $25 in advance at www.cagetix.com and are $30 at the door.

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 4:26 PM with the headline "Jeff Page Jr. returns to Wichita for bout."