WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES NOVEMBER 28, 2019 27
BUZZ
Ridgewood boxing ‘Prospect of the Year’
poised for stardom with undefeated record
Boxing association Ring 8 recently selected Ridgewood native Mathew “Lefty Gunz” Gonzalez as the 2019 Prospect of the Year. Photos: Max Parrott/QNS
BY MAX PARROTT
MPARROTT@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
With an undefeated nine-match
record and six knockouts, rising
Ridgewood boxing star Mathew Gonzalez
is poised to punch into the upper
crust of the boxing industry over the
next year.
Veteran boxing association Ring 8
recently selected Ridgewood native
Mathew Gonzalez as 2019 Prospect
of the Year. He will receive his honor
at 7 p.m. Dec. 8 at Russo’s on the Bay,
located at 162-45 Cross Bay Blvd., Howard
Beach.
Gonzalez is about halfway through
a 10-fi ght contract with The Real Deal
Boxing, founded by four-time heavyweight
champion Evander Holyfi eld.
If he can keep his undefeated streak
through the end of the contract with
13 wins, he hopes that it will put him
on track to sign a deal with one of
boxing’s highest tier promotions in
the next year.
The ambitious 24-year-old started
training to when he was 8 years old
and still enrolled at P.S. 239, which is
located right across the street from
his boxing gym. He has been working
toward a career in boxing ever since
and had his fi rst competitive fi ght
when he was 10 years old.
“It takes a lot to go in that ring and
get punched in the face. Defi nitely
not easy,” Gonzalez said. “You gotta
be a diff erent type of person to be a
boxer.”
Asked how his perspective on the
sport since then, Gonzalez says that
now he thinks about it as a profession.
Back then he said he thought of
himself as a gladiator. Now he sees a
career in boxing as a path to having
an “above-average lifestyle.”
To him, business is personal. Gonzalez’s
fi ancée Jenny Badillo manages
his career and owns the gym that he
uses to train. Gonzalez said that there
is no better his business partner than
a loved one.
He added that it can be a “headache
sometimes,” but “knowing that your
manager is someone that you’re laying
in bed with at the end of the day,
that’s someone that you trust and
know they have your best interests
at heart.”
But his career ambition is not the
only thing that drives him; Gonzalez
currently runs the youth and teen
program at Badillo’s boxing club in
addition to taking on clients to train.
“I always felt like I was a fi ghter at
heart,” he said.
On Thursday, he signed up for his
next fi ght, which is scheduled for Dec.
5 at Terminal 5 in Manhattan. The bout
will be promoted and live-streamed
by DiBella Entertainment. Gonzalez
didn’t know who his opponent would
be yet, but was already counting it as
a victory.
“Just come watch me go to work. I’ll
be making a massacre,” he said.
No matter what heights his career
takes him, Gonzalez said he would stay
loyal to the neighborhood where he’s
live his whole life. Then again, he sees
big moves and a lifestyle to match in
his future. “No two- or three-bedroom
apartments,” for him.
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