It took Albert Gonzalez years to figure out exactly what he was fighting for.

Striving to become one of the emerging forces in the ever-changing featherweight division, Gonzalez will take on Dana Coolwell on Saturday in an eight-round featherweight bout at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. But the road leading to it has been marked by twists and turns.

Gonzalez, 12-0 (7 KOs), a 22-year-old from Perris, California, started boxing with his two brothers early in life with the help of his father, Jorge Gonzalez. 

“We got into boxing because of my dad. The environment we grew up in was a rough neighborhood and stuff like that,” Gonzalez told BoxingScene. “One thing that I thank God for is, my dad understood that we needed to do something other than just school, because we had a lot of free time on our hands.”

The brothers tried many sports, but Danny, the middle Gonzalez brother, had a passion for boxing. It fueled his brothers to box. Albert, the youngest, was only seven years old at the time and remembers that he didn’t love boxing the way Danny did.

“Danny lived the boxing lifestyle,” Albert said. “When we get home after school, he was ready to go to the gym. He was the one who pushed all of us. He was the disciplined one.”

Albert recalled wanting to stay home and watch television or play with his friends, but Danny’s excitement motivated him to go to the gym. Albert was also frustrated with not being able to compete at nationals. 

“I was fighting every weekend, every tournament, but because of my age, I couldn't advance to the national tournament,” Albert said. “I would go to Silver Gloves, but because I was only eight years old, I could only advance to the state tournaments. I couldn't go to regional and national [events].”

Danny, four years older, did advance to national tournaments. Albert, now known as “Chop Chop,” competed in the amateurs until he was 13 years old, with his most active years of competition being from eight to 11. That’s when a major moment in his life happened: his mother, Sandra Sanchez, and his father divorced, and his father was subsequently deported.

“My parents got into a really bad divorce,” Albert said. “My dad, he's not from the United States – he's from Mexico. During that process, he got deported and it threw everything off. I ended up going with my mom, and he asked me, ‘Do you still want to keep boxing, or do you want to just kind of enjoy yourself?’ I was still 11-12 years old, so I told her, ‘I'm done with boxing. I want to live my life.”

Albert had exited the sport, while Danny would end up signing with Mayweather Promotions in 2016. Seeing Danny sign with a major promoter gave him hope, though Albert still didn’t go back to the gym until he saw his dad in 2018.

“I ran into my dad at a tournament,” Albert said. “I was there just because I was going to support a friend who was going to fight at a local boxing tournament. At this point, I’m not doing so well in high school. I'm not listening to my mom. My dad offered for me to come to Las Vegas and train with him.”

Albert took him up on it. Before long, he entered the 2018 Junior Golden Gloves in Mesquite, Nevada – and won.

“That win was something that just kind of re-centered me, to bring me back to what was something that I truly loved to do,” said Albert, who had around 60 fights in the amateurs.

While Albert returned to the sport, his brother’s career was in limbo. Danny retired at 3-0, with his last fight coming in April 2017.

“My brother didn't have any guidance,” Albert said. “It became all bad because he started living with his friends. When he started living with his friends, he started to have fun, he started to enjoy himself, which he had never been able to do in the amateurs.”

This, mixed with inactivity and being homesick, saw Danny slowly drift away from the sport he once loved.

“We grew up always being around each other,” Albert said. “When he moved out to Vegas, at first, it was exciting. He was by himself. He would always be calling my mom just because he wasn't used to it and he'd always just tell us how he wanted to come back home.”

Albert’s oldest brother was in college, and Albert himself was in high school. Eventually, Danny moved back and couldn’t find the motivation to go back to Las Vegas for training camps. He began to work and build a career outside boxing. It was Labor Day weekend of 2020, a Sunday. Danny had just arrived home from a construction site where he was putting in some overtime, prepping work details, when he called his brother to open the gate at the apartment complex. Albert, who had a couple of friends over, met Danny in the parking lot; they all wound up talking there.

“So just out of nowhere, a car pulls up on us,” Albert remembered. "My brother and I, we just thought they know that we don't gangbang or nothing like that. We never had trouble with them. We've seen them before, but I'm guessing something bad had happened. We were outside and they come by and they start asking us where we are from. We tell them, it's just family here, but the guys just seemed very sketchy.”

Racial tensions can run high in Moreno Valley, California, and Albert’s visiting friends lived down the street. Danny didn’t want them walking home after such an odd encounter.

“He said, ‘Go ask Mom for the keys and I'll just take them home,’” Albert said of Danny. “So I go, and in the split second that I go inside and get the keys, everything just happened. I guess the car had turned back, they came around, and they didn't say anything. They just started shooting. We came out to the traumatic scene.”

Danny died on September 7, 2020. He was only 22.

“When that happened, boxing wasn’t even on my mind,” Albert said. “It was revenge, and I just felt I was going crazy with that mindset. I knew I needed to do something about it, and that's what led me to go to the boxing gym.

“I started going to the gym just to help myself. I'm hitting the punching bags and I'm crying, but once that training session was over, I felt relieved. I felt good. I felt the presence of my brother, like he was happy I was in the gym.”

Then Albert’s dad found out he was training again.

“My dad started coming to the gym with me at night,” Albert said. “I would work during the day and train at night. Then I found out my girl was pregnant – and I had broken up with her, and I was going through a lot of problems.”

The news was another life-changing event in Albert’s young life, but this time it offered hope. Until then, Albert, who considered Danny to be his best friend, had thought his life was over.

But his father had not given up on him.

“My dad always believed in me in a way that no one else had,” Albert said. “I think that's what pushes me and drives me to this day, is not even the belief that I have in myself, but it's the fact that my dad believes in me so much, and I can't let him down.”

One more significant change has come into Albert’s life: He now trains with Robert Garcia, who recently moved his gym from Riverside, California, to a new location in Moreno Valley. Now Albert, still fighting for his family – his baby, his father, Danny – is eager and fully equipped to take another step in his career.

That comes Saturday, when Albert will face Coolwell, 13-3 (8 KOs), a 26-year-old Australian. Coolwell most recently dropped a unanimous decision to Bruce Carrington in November, but that came on the heels of a six-fight winning streak. The moment represents more than just the next fight for Albert.

“At first, I wanted to be a world champion for my brother, then to provide for my family,” Albert said. “But now that they moved the RGBA gym into Moreno Valley – my hometown where I was born and raised – now for the kids, for the community, for the city, for my family, it just goes on.

“The first goal is to win a first world title, but I truly don't want to stop there. I don't believe that God has brought me to only win a world title. I just want to test the limits. I want to see how far I can get and what I can do in the sport of boxing.”

Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.