The 17-year-old actor recently signed with Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions ... and he told us he's shifting his focus from entertainment to fighting.

"This is something I want to do for the rest of my life," Wanna said. "It's something I've been very passionate for a very long time, and it's something that I care about a lot."

"Boxing to me, is just a release," Wanna added. "I love every minute of it and, I mean, the ultimate goal is world champion and defending my titles for a very long time and becoming a Hall of Famer. That's the real goal for me."

But this isn't something that just came up out of the blue -- Wanna explained his parents would watch boxing all the time when he was a kid ... and naturally, he fell in love with the sport.

In fact, Wanna -- who started training when he was four years old -- now has 80 amateur bouts under his belt, including multiple tournament wins and Georgia state titles ... and went into detail on why he decided to team up with Jake's promotion.

"I wanted to go somewhere where I knew that I was gonna be valued, and a place that I knew that they were going to care about me a lot, and a place with a lot of talent," Wanna added. "Everyone over at MVP is very talented and they've all done such amazing things in their career."

Wanna praised Jake for being a "very sharp" and "super laid back" guy ... and told us he hopes to learn from the YouTuber-turned-boxing star.

We asked Wanna straight-up where he saw himself in 10 years ... and he's confident in his future.