Javon Walton to headline Misfits Boxing card in Miami on Saturday against Henry Cejudo

Javon Walton headlines a Misfits Boxing event in Miami on Saturday against Henry Cejudo, a former two-weight UFC champion and Olympic wrestling gold medallist making his professional boxing debut. The 20-year-old, better known to TV audiences as Ashtray in HBO’s Euphoria, is balancing an established acting profile with a long history in the ring.

Walton says he had "zero interest in acting" as a young child and that boxing was his first passion, a sport he took up after watching fights with his parents on HBO and persuading his father to take him to a gym at age four. He has fought 85 amateur bouts, twice won silver at the Junior Olympics and is signed to Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian's Most Valuable Promotions.

Walton also pursued gymnastics after following his sister into the sport, but a TV appearance on Steve Harvey’s show at age 11—where he threw pad combinations and performed a backflip—led casting director Jennifer Venditti to contact his family and invite him to audition for Euphoria. "I was like, 'OK, why not?'" he recalled of taking the audition.

That audition turned into further acting work: Walton has appeared in Amazon’s Utopia, Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy and the film Samaritan alongside Sylvester Stallone. "I found my love in that space," he said. "I look at that as an outlet where I can tap into my emotions because you can't do that in boxing."

Walton turned professional in December 2023 and has won three fights — one by stoppage — and drawn one. He says the competing demands of acting and fighting are difficult to reconcile because filming can keep him away for six months while a boxing camp requires eight weeks of focused preparation: "My goal is to see how well I can balance both but that's easier said than done," he said. "I kind of have to pick one to focus on."

Cejudo, 39, won Olympic freestyle wrestling gold in 2008 before becoming a two-division UFC champion, and Saturday will be his first professional boxing match. Walton accepted the bout with less than two weeks' notice after Cejudo's original opponent withdrew; the Florida State Commission has sanctioned the fight and it will count toward both fighters' professional records. Walton said: "You have to have a level of respect." He added: "But at the same time he's stepping into unmarked territory - my field and something I've done my whole life. On the mat it would be a different story, but this is the ring."

In Walton's corner will be his father and trainer, DJ, who first took him to the gym when he was four. "What was beautiful about our journey was we got to grow together," Walton said. "The way I look at it is we're the pilot and co-pilot."

The confirmed next step is the Misfits Boxing main event in Miami on Saturday between Walton and Cejudo, a bout sanctioned by the Florida State Commission that will be recorded on both men’s professional records.