On October 28th, former UFC heavyweight title challenger Gabriel Gonzaga (17-11) will be making his pro boxing debut in his adopted home of Massachusetts. “Napao” is retired from MMA competition unless he gets $100,000 for his next fight.
Gonzaga certainly won’t be making anywhere near $100,000 for his four-round boxing match against Alando Pugh, who has a record of 1-10-1 (1 KO) and has lost almost all of his fights by stoppage. As he told MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz, the 38-year-old just wants a different challenge in his combat sports career.
“My boxing coach always wanted me to fight something, and I’m doing it for the challenge,” Gonzaga said. “Financially, it’s pretty much zero. It doesn’t even pay the medical costs, but I’m doing it because I want to. Unlike (Conor) McGregor, who said it was for the challenge, but lost and made 100 million dollars, I wanted to fight something, just like I do when I compete in jiu-jitsu and fought MMA.”
Gonzaga comes from a BJJ background, but many of his UFC fights featured his striking, including his famous head kick KO of Mirko Cro Cop in 2007, plus his consecutive knockout wins over Dave Herman and Shawn Jordan in 2013. His willingness to stand and trade often proved his downfall, with several of his eleven losses coming by KO or TKO.
Unlike Conor McGregor’s highly profitable showdown against Floyd Mayweather, Gonzaga is taking the more conventional approach to a pro boxing debut, and he’s more than aware he’s not going to be competitive against the top heavyweight boxers in the world.
“Boxing is a high-level sport, and I’m fighting someone at my level,” he said. "I’ve never boxed in my life. I’ve trained with coach ‘Cebola’ when I lived in Sao Paulo, and now I’m training for a new challenge. I’m training with the same team, but with some boxing sparring. It’s complete different from MMA, and I wanted to do something different.”
“My obligation to win is the same that McGregor had: none,” he continued, mentioning McGregor’s recent bout with Floyd Mayweather. “It’s my first time in the sport, but the difference is that I’m going against someone at my level instead of fighting the best in the world — or I wouldn’t last one round because it’s at heavyweight. I have a good level of boxing, but not to challenge a boxing champion.”
Gonzaga also said that he has “no plans to start a career in boxing,” so don’t expect any miraculous rise to the top and a fight with Anthony Joshua.
https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2017/9/26/16369860/ex-ufc-contender-gabriel-gonzaga-boxing-conor-mcgregor-mma-news
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