By Thomas Gerbasi

A win over Aaron Pryor Jr. in their Friday rematch won’t get Mike Jimenez a super middleweight title shot, but it’s a move in the right direction for the Chicago native. That’s okay with him, as he knows a championship career wasn’t built in a day, just like the buildings and bridges he works on as a Local 63 ironworker don’t go up overnight.

But if the idea of working a full-time gig and boxing at the same time seems counterproductive to reaching the heights of the sport, Jimenez does have an example to look to in light heavyweight contender Joe Smith, who put his laborer job to the side long enough last year to knock out Andrzej Fonfara and Bernard Hopkins.

“It gives me high hopes that a guy who’s just like me, in the same position as me, who’s working and fighting and training his butt off every day is doing this,” Jimenez said of Smith. “You earn a lot of respect that way, and not just from your peers in the gym and other fighters, but from the guys that you work around and see you go through that daily grind. I respect him a ton for that.”

As the saying goes, five percent of the boxers make ninety-five percent of the money in this business, so a day job is often a necessary evil. Yet for the 30-year-old Jimenez, working and fighting have been part of his daily routine since he was a teenager.

“I started doing boxing and ironworking at the same time, so I’ve always done both together,” he said. “I’ve never been fortunate enough to do one or the other, so it’s always been the same, always been go, go go and hard work around the clock. It’s just a normal for me now. My body is used to it. I’m not saying it’s easy, by any means, but it’s just a daily routine now.”

For the Pryor fight, Jimenez did get a little extra time off to focus on the task at hand, but that’s the extent of it. He doesn’t get eight weeks off for training camps, and as soon as his fights are over, it’s back to work on that Monday. If it sounds like a brutal existence, it’s one that has kept him from the pitfalls that put a stop to many promising fighters’ careers.

“As a kid you can get in a lot of trouble and I think it kept me grounded,” he said. “It’s a 24/7 gig having to juggle both as far as getting my rest, eating right, being disciplined, and not getting into any trouble.”

Jimenez will save the trouble for his opponents, and thus far he’s doing pretty well in that department. Currently 20-1-1 with 14 KOs and one no contest, Jimenez has had his hiccups, mainly a stoppage loss to Jesse Hart on the Mayweather-Pacquiao undercard in 2015, and a TKO defeat to Derrick Findley in 2013 that was changed to a no contest when Findley failed a post-fight drug test.

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Since the Hart fight, he has gone 3-0-1, with only the 2016 draw against Pryor keeping him from four wins in a row. But this week he can change that around, as he gets a rematch he didn’t think he was going to.

“I kind of looked past it after a few months and I didn’t think it was gonna happen,” Jimenez said. “He (Pryor) took another fight, I took another fight and we were both juggling other things on the side as far as other fights coming up. But I’m happy we’re getting this opportunity again. I’m excited and I’m ready.”

Yet while the two do know each other after going ten rounds the first time, Jimenez doesn’t necessarily think that’s an advantage in the return bout.

“I know what he’s bringing to the table, but this is the fight game,” he said. “Guys are gonna change a little bit here and there, so as much as I can say I know what he’s bringing to the table, guys adapt and do different things. But my trainers and I have been working on a few different things and I’m sure they’ve been doing the same on the other side.”

In other words, Jimenez isn’t taking anything for granted in what is an important fight for his boxing future. He learned that before the Hart match, when surrounded by the hype of the biggest fight of this era. He didn’t win that night in Las Vegas, but he left with knowledge that serves him well now.

“There are a lot of distractions, a lot of different things pulling at you from different angles as far as friends, family, little media things you have to do or taking care of business at home,” he said. “But I’m already a well-grounded guy, and I know how to avoid that and stay focused. And that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been in a few big fights now and I feel like I know how to go with the flow, stay focused, stay determined and take care of what I have to do.”

And who knows, maybe if that million-dollar payday comes in, Jimenez can put his hard hat away for good.

Or maybe not.

“I’m still gonna pay my union dues,” he said. “I’m union ‘til I die and I’m gonna be there as much as I can and I definitely support my brothers. Bigger fights and opportunities are gonna be coming, which means bigger training camps, so I’ll have to take more time off. And if that comes, I’m gonna have to step away from the job for a little bit longer than usual. But you can’t live on a million bucks for too long. (Laughs) I like my job, I like building the city of Chicago, and it keeps me focused and grounded. I enjoy doing it.”