![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/0830_SPT_Victor-Morales-1226x0-c-default-225x300.jpg\")
<\/a>By Marc \u201cKid Huevos\u201d Livitz<\/strong><\/p>\nThe shutdown caused by the current global pandemic has sent many into a justified panic, while at the same time delivering those of us on the safe side a super size dose of cabin fever. The theme I\u2019ve attempted to set with this series of interviews over the past few weeks is the basic idea that professional fighters aren\u2019t so different from most of us. We\u2019ve all experienced our own versions of setbacks over the past two months and some within the boxing ranks have been dealt one upon the next, as I found out earlier this week when I spoke to super featherweight contender Victor Morales, JR. <\/p>\n
As the personable 22 year-old native of the Pacific Northwest shared with me during a pleasant phone call, a broken pinky finger meant his next bout originally scheduled for late March would be scrapped. Shortly after receiving the bad news, the whole world basically got some of its own. In any case, this was likely small fries for him, as a childhood bout with Meningitis at age 4 left him paralyzed from the waist down for almost a year. He\u2019s always credited his father Victor, Sr. with helping him stay positive throughout his life as he went on to put together an impressive amateur record of 118 wins against 12 losses.<\/p>\n
In addition, he won three separate national championship awards as he also nabbed an \u2018outstanding fighter\u2019 prize in 2014. Perhaps the oddest thing about our chat was the fact that Morales, 13-0, 7 KO\u2019s, was telling me how Washington state was in the midst of a heat wave, after which I replied that central Texas was getting hammered by heavy rain. It\u2019s usually the other way around, right?<\/p>\n
ML: Hey, Victor, great talking with you again, my friend. What have you been up to these past few months as much of the world was seemingly put on hold?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMy family runs a pressure washing business and we\u2019ve stayed very busy. There\u2019s been all kinds of business, such as sanitation on shopping carts at grocery stores and the concrete in parking lots. I manage it and make sure everything runs smooth.\u201d<\/p>\n ML: So, what were you doing and where were you when you heard that everything had to stop due to the Coronavirus?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI had broken my left hand just before I was all set for a fight at the end of March at the Forum in LA. I shattered the pinky bone and I needed three surgeries to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n ML: Dang! How\u2019d you break your hand so badly?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt was one of those heavy bags that you fill up with water. I was just training at home and I ended up leaving it outside overnight. We had a hard freeze in the area but I didn\u2019t think anything of it. We brought it back inside and I basically punched a block of ice. I knew right away that something was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n ML: So, that pretty much shut you down before the actual shutdown.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYes, but for me, it was almost like a blessing in disguise. The whole card was canceled, of course. I had thoughts of having to watch all the fights with a huge cast on my hand. I\u2019d be sitting down watching everyone else fight and I\u2019d be even more miserable. It\u2019s okay, though because I know that everyone\u2019s been affected by all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n ML: You last fought around Thanksgiving last year. What did you take away from your bout against Diuhl Olguin down in Indio (California)?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt was definitely a hard lesson learned because he wasn\u2019t my original opponent. He got lost driving up there once he passed the border. Still, this guy I fought was ready and I had no clue who he was. I learned that he\u2019d given losses to previously undefeated fighters. I found out a day before the weigh-in, so I had to just recall back to my amateur days and remember that I always had to be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n ML: Have you been able to do much in terms of training?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMy doctor slowly started to clear me for certain activities after around a month and a half. I\u2019d been just running and shadow boxing. My gym closed at the end of February and my dad was able to pick up an Olympic weight set, so I started lifting very light weights. We\u2019ve slowly added some things to the pot like plyometric exercises and I recently started throwing again at the heavy bag.\u201d<\/p>\n ML: Have you ventured out much?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cOh, yes. From where I live, you can go north to Seattle or go east to play in the snow and there\u2019s a lot of beaches between Washington and Oregon. We took some quads out to the sand dunes over Memorial Day weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n M<\/strong>L:<\/em> Did any bad habits creep in while you were recovering and waiting? Anything like staying up too late or eating a little too much?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWell, for stuff like eating, every athlete changes when things slow down. We eat a bunch of food so that we can burn it off. If you fuel up and don\u2019t use it, then you have to find a way to get rid of it. But I\u2019ve been staying in shape and keeping my weight under check. I\u2019m still on track to keep fighting at 126 (pounds). I usually walk around at about 140 or so.\u201d<\/p>\n ML: Well, Victor, thanks so much for your time today. I do have one last question, though and I\u2019ve asked every fighter I\u2019ve interviewed in this series for their opinion on former heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz, JR. joining up with the Canelo Alvarez camp. He didn\u2019t look great in his rematch with Anthony Joshua, so do you think they can help him?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWell, it all depends on his mentality. I was skeptical when (WBC super lightweight silver champion) Ryan Garcia moved over to them. I thought they couldn\u2019t help him but he\u2019s a superstar now, so we can only hope it helps out with Andy Ruiz, JR. He\u2019s a grown man. I\u2019m kind of just waiting. Obviously, I hope the best for him. One of his coaches, Manny Robles always said that he had trouble motivating him and that Andy\u2019s dad would come up with excuses.\u201d<\/p>\n [si-contact-form form=’2′]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [AdSense-A] By Marc \u201cKid Huevos\u201d Livitz The shutdown caused by the current global pandemic has sent many into a justified panic, while at the same time delivering those of us on the safe side a super size dose of cabin fever. The theme I\u2019ve attempted to set with this series of interviews over the past […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[410,22344],"class_list":["post-88928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-jr","tag-the-quarantine-chronicles-part-v-victor-morales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88928"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88928\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}