As this year’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers have come to form an identity over the past few months, there have been plenty of words that people locally and nationally have used to describe them. We’ve heard adjectives like, young, fast, charismatic and dynamic, to name a few. But, according to a unique fan of the Bucs organization, we have a new word to add to that mix.

Fighter.

The person who linked this word to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is undefeated boxer, Erickson Lubin. Lubin hails from Orlando, FL. He’s is 18-0 in his career with 13 knockouts, and is the number one contender for the WBC title.

Pro Boxer Erickson Lubin

Last week he reached out to the Buccaneers organization to see if there was any way he could make it to the team’s last OTA practice before mandatory mini-camp began. These practices aren’t open to the public, but after the organization heard how big of a Bucs fan Lubin was, they decided to let him in and even meet some of the players.

“I’m a big Bucs fan. Jameis [Winston] is young just like I am, so I support the young guys who also try to influence the youth,” Lubin said. “This is my first time getting to meet them. I heard that Mike Evans is a big boxing fan; we got to speak a little bit. He told me he’s a big fan of me, as I am of him.”

Evans is quite the fan, and seemed to already know his stuff on Lubin before the recorders and cameras were on to ask him about it.

“I got to talk to him when I was out here,” Evans said. “I told him I was a big fan of his; he said he was a fan of me. We wish him nothing but the best moving forward. He’s a young, up-and-coming fighter. He’s very explosive and fun to watch.”

Evans was asked about what attracted him to boxing, and if there were any similarities in a boxer to a wide receiver. Evans said with confidence that there certainly are, especially in the technical side of things.

“Hands and quicknesses,” Evans said when describing some of the traits for both receivers and boxers. “I do boxing workouts, and that shows when I’m working my hands off the line, and it just helps with good hand-eye-coordination.”

Though Lubin is local to a state that loves their football, he himself is just getting into it as a fan, as you might imagine for someone who’s been working on a attaining a professional career since the age of five. Lubin said, even beyond just proximity to where he’s from, the Bucs were a team that really caught his interest as he began to watch more pro football.

“I’m not too much of a football guy (said it’s hard to have the time), but I really like the Bucs because they’re a fighting team, they’re growing,” Lubin said. “I just started really watching football and they’re one of my favorite teams. They’re fighters. They go out and give it their all every time they get on the field, no matter the record. They’re still growing. I feel like in the next few seasons they’re going to come out on top.”

Lubin said the details of his next fight – which will be for a title – are still being worked out, but he’s training and planning for it to be sometime in August. For the Buccaneers, their football calendar is just beginning, but that didn’t stop people from asking if Lubin was going to give Evans some boxing pointers next offseason when he trains.

“[Laughs] Not yet. We didn’t get that far yet, but one day I’d definitely like to help him,” Lubin said.