The Hammer is on Fire and Looking to Nail Mercedes.
The life of a prospect in the sport of boxing is harrowing. So much is on the line that one slip up and you’re on thin ice. Mis-step a second time and you’ll find yourself in a steep sided dustbin, almost impossible to climb out of as the money that provided your career ladder is now going to someone else more “promising.” Just ask Ricardo Williams who went from a certified 24-karat gold plated brilliant future to career free fall and then through the floorboards to complete life collapse. After going through, say about ten or so opponents with absolutely no chance of winning, a prospect begins to face the dreaded journeyman type of competition. Many of these journeymen were good fighters once themselves and can still turn it on now and again. Come in overconfident and splat! Getting beaten by a journeyman with about as many losses as wins is like being a bug on a windshield. It’s damn difficult to get back to your former flight path.
Jesus “The Hammer” Gonzales is at that stage where he’s fighting journeymen after obliterating those with scant chances. The young southpaw from the American southwest meets the very tough, rawhide like Alberto Mercedes tomorrow night in Arizona and is nothing if not up for the challenge. “He’s a tough guy, no question, but so am I,” exclaimed Gonzales. “I’ve been working with guys who are fighting for world titles and I’ve been doing real well against them. I think I’ll be able to knock my opponent out but I have trained for twelve hard rounds if it comes to it.”
Should Gonzales be right and he avoids a career threatening reversal, more difficult going awaits and he knows it. He does feel he has the right set of skills and the right team behind him to continue to light up the competition, all the way up to the biggest names in the talent rich middleweight division. “I would love to fight Fernando Vargas, he enthused. “That would be a perfect fight for me right there, and I’m really confident about it. I think Vargas can bounce back and I think that when he fought De La Hoya, Oscar was just a better boxer with more experience who knows how to do a lot of things. I think that Fernando kind of just punched himself out, throwing so many shots. I think if he would have taken his time a bit more with he being the stronger fighter. I definitely respect him though, he never quits and always goes for it all the time.”
Jesus Gonzales is someone to watch in the coming years and with the backing of his promoter, Top Rank, should go along way as he strives to reach the top. He is aware that it will take everything he’s got to pull it off but the twenty-year-old has uncommon patience and poise for someone with just thirteen fights to his credit. “I train to go the distance and I know boxing isn’t an overnight thing. I used to rush things as an amateur but as a pro, I’ve learned to take my time. You don’t have to hurt a guy all at once because you have the time to wear them down. That’s what I plan to do on Friday but if the chance comes, I’ll knock this guy out.”
Richard Eberline can be reached at richardeberline@fastmail.fm