Irvin Gonzalez Jr. fell in love with the Mini Cooper after watching the remake of “The Italian Job,” which starred Mark Wahlberg, as a 7-year-old in 2003.
The Worcester native, now 28, owns a couple of the BMW-manufactured performance cars and Wednesday afternoon was working on a 2009 S model — along with a 1988 Camaro IRCO-Z — as he and his dad, Irvin Sr., buy, restore and then sell vehicles.
“We love the Camaros, but the Mini-Cooper is my thing,” Gonzalez said Wednesday afternoon from Dayville, Connecticut, where he currently resides. “I’ll tell you, I’m a car guy.
“I love working on cars. I love working with my hands. I think that’s why I love fighting, because it’s with my hands.”Gonzalez began boxing not long after Wahlberg's character and his criminal colleagues pulled off a gold heist on the big screen.
He turned pro in 2016 a year after concluding a distinguished amateur career in which he won a New England Golden Gloves championship and qualified for the U.S. Olympic championships.
Gonzalez will return to the ring Saturday night when he meets undefeated and defending champion “King” Kevin Walsh of Brockton for the USA New England super featherweight belt in the co-main event at Foxwoods' Great Cedar Showroom.
“I’m very excited to step back into the ring, especially at Foxwoods,” said Gonzalez, whose main trainer remains his dad. “That’s where I made my pro debut, and I think I’ve fought six times at Foxwoods. I love the venue, and I love to fight.”
The 5-foot-9 Gonzalez, a 2015 Burncoat High graduate, comes in with a 16-4 (12 KOs) record, including 4-2 at the Connecticut casino. Walsh is 13-0 (6 KOs), but he’s only faced four opponents with a winning record, two.
Gonzalez’s last 15 opponents have entered the ring on the plus side of the ledger at a combined 257-110-5.
“The kid I’m fighting is,” Gonzalez said before pausing and chuckling, “I like to be nice, but I don’t think he’s anywhere near my level. Yes, on paper he has a better record than me, but if you really look at the paper and the opponents, my opponents blow his opponents out of the water.
“His record is very padded to me. I’ve seen him fight multiple times, and he’s never really impressed me. He isn’t a walk in the park, but I feel like I’m going to be victorious easily because our skill levels are in two different places.”
Gonzalez, a true featherweight, is so sure of himself he was willing to move up a weight class, from his normal 126 to 130 pounds.
And while the record will show this is his first fight since recording a second-round knockout in May at Twin River Event Center, Gonzalez actually has fought eight times since as a member of the Boston Butchers of Team Combat League.
Gonzalez’s promotor, Jimmy Burchfield of Providence-based CES Boxing, is the Butchers general manager and putting on Saturday’s scheduled eight-fight card.
“I’ve been very active this year with TCL,” Gonzalez said. “My timing is there; all my skill sets are there. I know I’m ready.”
Gonzalez is proud of the fact he participated in the first fight and recorded the first knockout in Boston Butchers history.
One of his teammates was Keno Luna of Worcester, who improved to 3-0 as a pro with a unanimous decision victory last month at Polar Park.
“Me and him, we call each other brothers,” said Gonzalez, who used to train at his dad’s since-shuttered gym in Worcester with Luna.
“We might not be blood, but we’re related somehow. That’s the bond that we have. We’ve built a bond that’s unbreakable.”
Gonzalez also remains an immensely proud dad to Lilah, his 10-year-old daughter who is in fifth grade at Abby Kelley and playing soccer and taking dance lessons this year.
He makes the drive back to Worcester three or four days a week to pick her up after school.
“She’s doing great,” Gonzalez said. “She’s getting to that age where she thinks she knows everything. But she’s good. She’s still a child and living her best life.”
Tickets for Live Championship Boxing are available at cesfights.com and ticketmaster.com. Doors open at 6 p.m. with the first bout scheduled to begin an hour later.
—Contact Rich Garven at rgarven@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @RichGarvenTG.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: 'I love the venue, and I love to fight': Worcester's Irvin Gonzalez Jr. returns to friendly Foxwoods for Saturday night bout
Local News
