DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — A South Florida boxer refuses to give up his dreams of making it big in the ring — all while wearing a prosthetic leg — and his community is backing him every step of the way.
Julian Gonzalez is always pushing himself.
“Be quick, you know, be fast — in my hands, in my speed, in my thinking,” he said.
The young pugilist has been chasing his dream of becoming a professional boxer, but it’s how he’s doing it that makes his story stand out.
“You know there’s no Paralympic boxing, so,” he said.
Now he’s proving he doesn’t need his own lane in the ring. He recently came face to face with an able-bodied boxer, heavier and more experienced.
“It was a good fight,” he said. “As soon as that bell rung, and it was just me and him, it was like all that completely washed away.”
That’s when all his hours of training paid off.
“All that work, the two and a half years, the weeks leading up to it, it was phenomenal, phenomenal,” he said.
Back in October, Gonzalez won his first fight and scored his first belt.
“The feeling of having my hand raised, in that ring, is like no other,” he said.
That showed him, and his coaches at Phoenix Boxing Gym in Delray Beach, that he’s ready to compete.
“I am able to compete level to level with people who are two-legged, and I feel like, with how I move, I move better than most people with two legs. My footwork is pretty decent,” said Gonzalez.
Now he has the belt to show it, and a community rooting for him.
“I was chasing him around, trying to get his wraps off his hands, and he didn’t want to know. I think he sleeps with that belt,” said Michael Hockton, who owns Phoenix Boxing Gym.
Now Gonzalez getting ready for a 2026 filled with fights and more wins.
“It went well, it went well,” he said.
Gonzalez is looking to raise $20,000 for a new prosthetic leg, So far, he’s raised more than $2,000 through his nonprofit, known as We Box For Life. For more information, click here.
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