Heading into Friday’s fight against Ryan Wilczak, Abel Gonzalez is feeling better than he normally does. The super middleweight prospect has been within 10lbs of the division’s weight limit for about a week – right where top boxers tend to be at that point in camp.

That’s a huge difference from where he was for his previous fight in June, when he entered fight week at 200lbs, and had to cut down to 173lbs using a combination of water loading, where a boxer will consume several gallons of water a day and then rapidly cut down, and training twice a day.

Gonzalez admits that he was worried about how his legs would hold up against Alarenz Reynolds if their fight went into the later rounds. Fortunately for him, it ended two minutes in, with a series of right hands being his previously unbeaten opponent’s undoing.

The 27 year old who resides in south Florida has no such concerns heading into his eight-round fight with the also unbeaten Wilczak at the Caribe Royal in Orlando, Florida. He says that it’s because he’s maturing more as a man, and that that is manifesting in his training habits.

“I had to change my lifestyle generally, separate myself from certain people,” he told BoxingScene. “I really isolated myself and decided what I wanted to do. And if this is what I wanted to do, I’d rather go all in or just not do it at all,” Gonzalez, who is promoted by Queensberry Promotions and managed by Keith Connolly and Ryan Rickey, told BoxingScene.

That isn’t to say that he hasn’t had a lot on his mind heading into his next fight fight. Gonzalez has had to remain focused on the task at hand amid a storm of setbacks outside of the ring – including the death of one of his best friends as recently as March.

“There were a lot of things on the outside where, if I didn’t dial in, I could have crashed out,” the 7-0 (5 KOs) Gonzalez admitted.

“Instead of turning the other route of self-medicating or partying or isolating and not training, I just used it as fuel and turned it up a notch. This is going to be the best performance that I’ve put on so far.”

Boxing has long been Gonzalez’s safe haven. Born and raised in Las Vegas, he first picked up the sport at 11. He trained at the legendary Johnny Tocco’s after his father, Ameth, suggested he find a positive outlet to keep him out of trouble. He trained under Rafael Ramirez there before moving with his father to south Florida as a teenager. Since then, it’s been his father working as his head trainer.

He had a better-than-most amateur career, highlighted by two National Golden Gloves championships – in 2017 and 2021 – plus a silver medal at the 2020 USA National Championships that he insists he won. In around 80 fights, Gonzalez estimates he lost just 11 times – almost exclusively at national tournaments.

There were few opponents he faced that people would have heard of – perhaps Daniel Blancas, the 12-0 (5 KOs) prospect he beat in the 2021 National Golden Gloves finals who has been fighting on the undercards of Premier Boxing Champions, or, perhaps somewhat ironically, Abimbola Osundairo, the Nigeria native he beat earlier in that tournament who is best known for his role in the 2019 hoax orchestrated by the actor Jussie Smollett.

Against Wilczak, Gonzalez will have an opportunity to showcase his abilities to an even bigger audience. Their fight will be streamed live on DAZN as part of the card headlined by the junior-welterweight fight between Kevin “El Alfa” Brown against Esteuri Suero.

Gonzalez says he knows little about Wilczak, who is 11-0 (6 KOs) and an undefeated but untested fighter from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Wilczak has been inactive in recent years, last fighting in 2022, when he traveled down to Colombia for a pair of record-building wins. Before that, he was inactive for three years.

“I know absolutely nothing about him,” said Gonzalez, before adding: “We’re not overlooking him at all. I’ve looked at his opponents, he hasn’t fought [anyone of note]. Me with my record, I’ve already fought four, five undefeated fighters. My third fight was against a guy who was 9-0; we haven’t taken the easiest route and that’s what I want to bring back to the sport of boxing. The ruggedness because it’s war – the Marvin Hagler way.”

Ahead of this fight, Gonzalez has recruited Michael Hobart, a veteran of training camps with Tyson Fury, Derek Chisora and Gervonta Davis, among others. He also sparred the recent IBF super-middleweight title challenger Vladimir Shishkin to prepare for his opponent.

His co-manager Rickey says he expects Gonzalez to take a major step in his career in 2025.

“Keith Connolly and I have the utmost faith in Abel's ability,” he said. “We plan to work together with Queensberry to seek out the best opportunities. I fully expect by this time next year that Abel Gonzalez will be a household name at 168.”

With all that Gonzalez has been through, he intends to make the most out of his time with the sport.

“Just realizing all the time I put into it,” he said. “All the stuff boxing took from me. Like the saying goes, boxing is the woman I loved that never loved me back. It took a lot from my mental health, from my sanity, from my family, my friends. So I gotta get what I deserve.”

Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.