As Alice Cooper sang, “School’s out forever,” and Alexander Gueche, already five fights into his pro career after graduating from high school, couldn’t be happier.
“I think I’ve definitely gotten more used to the fight game,” said the Long Beach, California native, who looks to make it 6-0 when he faces David Vargas Zamora on the Diego Pacheco-Maciej Sulecki card this Saturday in Carson. “The biggest adjustment was the training. I’m in camp training two times a day rather than just training right after school. It’s a full-time job, basically.”
And business is booming for the 18-year-old, who has halted all five of his opponents in three rounds or less. No, he’s not fighting the killers of the bantamweight division yet, but he is a teenager with less than 10 fights, so cut the kid a break as he learns the ropes. And though he hasn’t been put to the test yet on nights when he picks up a paycheck, in the gym, he’s getting a college education without books.
“I feel like a lot of the experience that I’ve gotten has been through sparring just because I’ve been sparring a lot of the elite fighters,” he said. “So, I think I’ve learned from them more so than I have in my fights.”
Among the star-studded cast he’s been sharing the ring with have been the likes of Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, Junto Nakatani and, more recently, newly crowned IBF featherweight champion Angelo Leo. You can’t buy that type of experience.
“It’s all learning for me because these are guys that are going to take your punch and keep coming,” Gueche said. “They’re going to show you new things and they’re going to hit you places where you’ve never been hit before.”
After sessions like that, Zamora may not make the hair on Gueche’s arms stand up, but he’s prepared for whatever may happen at Dignity Health Sports Park, simply because he knows that someone out there will take his punches, laugh at them and keep moving forward. That’s the game, and Gueche knows it.
“I think I’ve had a couple good opponents where they made me think more, but I can’t say I’ve been in a war yet or a fight where I really have to dig deep,” he admits. “But I’m definitely going to start stepping up, and I know that’s going to have to happen when I’m going to have to dig deep in my fights. So the sparring is definitely going to help with that.”
What the sparring can’t prepare a young fighter for is being under the bright lights on a big card. That pressure can kill the best of intentions, but Gueche has started to get a taste for it, fighting on a Callum Walsh card in Chumash, a Jake Paul card in Orlando, and a DAZN-televised event in Orlando. And earlier this month, he was in attendance at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles when Terence Crawford faced Israil Madrimov, with his feelings fluctuating between being a fan and taking everything in and wondering how he’ll react if he gets to that stage in his own career.
“I definitely grew up enjoying watching boxing, but now that I’m a professional, I look at it different,” he said. “I’m thinking, ‘Oh, what is the fighter in the ring thinking?’ Or I wonder how he’s feeling in there. Of course, he (Crawford) had a really big crowd watching him.”
One day, Gueche may be in the same shoes as the pound-for-pound king. That’s a long time down the road, but the idea keeps him pushing, in the gym and the ring.
“I’m letting the process happen, and watching those big fights definitely makes me excited,” he said. “But I know the sport, I know how it works, and I know that I have to keep getting better every day if I want to be there.”
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