PHOENIX – You won’t find the hours loading trucks, or the nights as a security guard, or the days as a temporary Census employee anywhere in Jesus Gonzales’ fight-by-fight record. You won’t find many losses, either.
“I did whatever I could to bring in some money,’’ said the once-beaten Gonzales, a one-time prospect and full-time dad who goes back to work at the only job he has ever wanted Friday night at Celebrity Theatre in a homecoming against Dhafir Smith of Philadelphia.
It’s not the career that Gonzales had envisioned in 2003 when Top Rank signed him to a contract that included a $250,000 bonus.
Then, he was compared to Oscar De La Hoya. Then, he seemed destined to succeed and even surpass Michael Carbajal’s Hall of Fame impact on the Phoenix boxing market. Then, it seemed as if nothing could get in his way.
Now, we know that a lot has.
“It’s been a rocky road,’’ Gonzales said. “Yeah, real rocky.’’
But it’s not over, at least not if Gonzales (25-1, 14 KOs) can prevail at 168 pounds against Smith (24-19-7, 4 KOs), a more experienced super-middleweight who beat former and faded champion Jeff Lacy in his last outing.
The bout, Gonzales’ first at home in about four years, represents an initial step in an attempt to recapture the promise he displayed as an amateur about a decade ago.
Before Emanuel Steward quit as the U.S. Olympic coach before the 2004 Athens Games, he said Gonzales would be America’s best bet for a gold medal. Gonzales, who decided to forego the Olympics, had beaten Andre Berto and Alfredo Angulo. He also beat Andre Ward, America’s lone gold medalist in Athens. In fact, Gonzales is the last one to beat Ward, an unbeaten pro and the Super Six super-middleweight favorite who has said he would like to avenge that loss in a rematch.
For a while, it looked as if his amateur accomplishments and early promise as a pro would be only memories, stories he could tell could tell his 4-year-old son, Ernie III. But then he began to realize he had not been forgotten
When he was loading trucks at Target and working security at Metro Tech High School, he would hear his nickname, El Martillo, Spanish for The Hammer.
“All the time,’’ said Gonzales, who fights as Jesus but is known simply as Ernie by friends and family. “People would stop for a second, look and say ‘Hey, Martillo, is that you?’’
At 26, Gonzalez is near or at his physical prime. That means undiminished power. For anybody who had forgotten about it, Gonzales delivered a stinging reminder in November in Calgary against Jason Naugler, also a former Top Rank prospect. He won a second-round stoppage, leaving Naugler with broken ribs.
But that power, Gonzales says, is now only one of his weapons. The difference, he says, is in when and how he uses it. Another difference is the absence of his father, also Ernie, in his corner. One of the issues with Top Rank was Gonzales’ dad. Father and son are still close. But trainers from the Busted Knuckles Gym in north Phoenix will be in the corner Friday night. Ernie Sr., will be nearby, but in a seat at ringside.
In Calgary, Gonzales’ corner was manned by longtime friend Rafael Valenzuela, a high-school classmate and featherweight whose string of bad luck continues. Valenzuela, who was disqualified in his last fight, was scheduled for the Friday card. But his bout fell through when his opponent failed to make weight Thursday at Carbajal’s Ninth Street Gym.
“Rafael is a good trainer, a real good trainer,’’ Gonzales said. “So is my dad. But one of the things I learned is that you can’t have family in your corner. It just gets confusing. I know that now. If there’s one thing I could do over, I wouldn’t be as hard-headed as I was when I was younger. I thought I knew it all. I should have listened to those Top Rank guys. They’ve been there. They know about the business. They can put you in position to win. You can learn from them. ’’
Gonzales says a key part of his newfound learning curve is happening within the ropes.
“It’s about boxing, all about boxing skills,’’ said Gonzales, who eight years ago would abandon tactics in an erratic bull-rush that inevitably left him open for a career-changing loss an 8th-round TKO, to Jose Luis Zertuche in 2005. “I’ve learned a lot in a lot ways since then. Now it’s time for me to give this career one more big push.
After Top Rank dropped him in the wake of Zertuche, he moved to Houston to train with Kenny Weldon. He went 8-0, but his career went nowhere.
“There were good guys there, but they just didn’t have any pull,’’ Gonzales said.
He thought he was in line for a mandatory shot at a minor title held by Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., a Top Rank fighter.
“But Top Rank wouldn’t talk about it, wouldn’t talk at all’’ said Gonzales, who fights Smith Friday for the International Boxing Federation’s vacant version of the North American 168-pound title.
A minor IBF championship is significant only for the possible ranking attached to it. Gonzales’ new promoter, Canadian Darin Schmick of Fanbase Promotions, says that if Gonzales wins, he could get ranked among the super-middleweight’s second five.
“We’ve calculated No. 6 or No. 7,’’ said Schmick, who has signed Gonzales to a five-fight deal. “But this a tough fight and Jesus has to win.’’
Nobody knows that better than Gonzales. Once was enough to tell him what can happen if he doesn’t.
NOTES
· Schmick said Wednesday at a news conference that he has talked to Top Rank about including Phoenix prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. on a Fanbase card in April. Benavidez, an unbeaten junior-welterweight, fights Friday in Tijuana. He has yet to fight in his hometown. Top Rank had scheduled him for a bout in Phoenix last year. But the card was canceled because of the controversy over Arizona’s immigration legislation, SB 1070.
· Another reason to appreciate the Klitschko brothers came from Vitali Wednesday during a call promoting his fight in Germany Saturday night for the WBC heavyweight title against Cuban Odlanier Solis. The bout will be televised by EPIX, a new entry in the boxing broadcast game. Vitali talked about the ongoing catastrophe in Japan. Explosions and reports of a potential meltdown at a Japanese power plant reminds him of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. “My father was there,’’ said Vitali, a Ukrainian. “I know how big this tragedy is. I want to support Japan’s people. I want to support the people who are fighting right now against this tragedy. And we definitely will make a donation from this fight to support Japan. I know how hard it is. I know how dangerous. It touched my family.
