By Mario Ortega Jr. –
While wrapping up his training camp, Hancel Gonzalez suffered an injury that forced him to pull out of the scheduled eight-round Combate Space main event against veteran contender Ve Shawn Owens, which was to take place this Saturday at the Arena Ring Central in Mexico City, Mexico.
Owens (14-3, 12 KOs) of Minneapolis, Minnesota was going to give up weight and natural size against the larger Gonzalez. Now, stepping in for the Colombian Gonzalez, will be a more natural welterweight in Heriberto Flores (10-0, 9 KOs) of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.
Preparing for Saturday’s originally scheduled bout, Owens made the sacrifices that fighters make, stunting celebrations for Thanksgiving and his son’s birthday, which both took place last week.
“It is a sacrifice, it is,” Owens explained. “I couldn’t do everything I actually wanted to do for my son’s birthday. I couldn’t really do as much as I wanted to do for Thanksgiving. Both of those days I was training and working. That is just the thing with this career. You are going to have to make sacrifices. It is a good thing that I have a good team behind me. When I say team, I mean support system. My family really understands. When it is fight time, they understand I am going to push it. They get it. It is hard, but everyone gets what I am trying to do.”
Coming off a career-best performance in decisioning once-beaten Kudratillo Abdukakhorov in February, Owens fielded some offers in the time since, but wanted to keep this date in Mexico.
“I’ve gotten lots of offers,” explained Owens on Friday, shortly after arriving in Mexico, but before the opponent change. “Lots and lots of offers. Some of them were a bit ridiculous. Some were actually really good, but I was already really dedicated to this one. I don’t want to back-up from my word. I made a commitment to this one.”
Another component playing a part in Owens’ ten-month layoff, and the decision take this fight, is that his long-time head trainer Sankara Frazier has been slowed by a health issue.
“Our head coach is kind of sick and going through a few things right now and putting our careers on hold,” explains Owens. “I told him, these people and our teammate in Mexico are serious. There’s not much we can really do right now and I am not getting any younger. I am 32, so I can’t keep on waiting.”
Many of Owens’ biggest fights have been televised by Showtime. With the network concluding its long association with boxing at the end of the year, keeping Saturday’s date in Mexico has added importance.
“This year, has been kind of tough, just being active,” says Owens. “I understand changes are going on, and Al Haymon has a few tricks up his sleeve, but he’s going to need some time. I want to stay on that hot streak, so when everything with PBC takes effect, I can get going hot.”
Owens represents a huge step up in class for Flores. In his last bout, Flores stepped up to the scheduled ten-round distance for the first time and stopped fellow unbeaten Eduardo Sanchez in nine. Prior to that win in Costa Rica, all of Flores’ bouts had come against soft opposition in Mexico.
Regardless of the opponent change, Owens aims for the same planned result as he continues his rise in the welterweight division on Saturday night.
“Hopefully it gets me closer to the top ten in the world,” says Owens. “As far as the future, I don’t really want to speak too much on that. I want to focus on what’s in front of me right now, so I don’t want to talk about this and that. My main objective is this guy right now.”
Tickets for the event, promoted by Producciones Deportivas and televised throughout Latin America on Space, are available at the venue.
Photo by Esther Lin/Showtime
Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at [email protected]
