Levelland native and Lubbock resident, “Mighty” Mateo Gonzalez is fighting next Saturday on August 9 at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center.
In his 11th professional mixed martial arts fight, Gonzalez (6-4 record) will face off against Brakenden Freeman (3-3 record) in a bantamweight (135 lbs.) bout in the Peak Fighting Championship 46 event.
Gonzalez returns in a hometown bout seeking to bounce back from a loss in his previous fight in January.
“I took a fight at 145 pounds and I’m a natural bantamweight. I ended up losing by TKO in the second round,” Gonzalez said. “I should’ve pulled out of that fight, I was sick, I had a staph infection. But I’m a warrior at the end of the day, I was daring to be great, and I paid the price for it, and it set me back a couple of steps. I’m going to hop on the high horse and get back to it. My win streak starts again with beating this guy next weekend.”
Preparing for his return, Gonzalez has now spent more than 10 weeks in training camp, which he started as soon as he got the news of his upcoming fight.
This training camp looks a little bit different than his previous ones as he’s taken things to the next level to ensure victory.
“I’ve made a lot of small changes. I started dieting eight weeks ahead of time. I’m walking around at 148 pounds, which is really good. I’m on weight right now. I just had to tweak out certain things that I had in my diet,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve implemented a lot more recovery, which is essential to MMA fighters. You’ve got to mix in your active recovery days, knowing when to go hard, knowing when to pull back. I’m training six days out of the week now, instead of five.”
Gonzalez referenced the necessity of these changes not only to avenge his previous loss, but also to keep evolving with the sport of MMA.
In a sport that will leave you behind quickly, Gonzalez refuses to plateau as a fighter. As if he needed more motivation for his upcoming fight, his opponent Brakenden Freeman is providing even more.
“He’s talking all this trash over social media, any little thing he can find,” Gonzalez said. “He’s been talking about how he’s going to knock me out in the first round. He keeps on calling me a midget. He’s trying to get in my head, but I live in reality, I don’t live on social media.”
Gonzalez is solely focused on his performance in the cage, but he did issue a warning to his opponent and his attempt at mind games.
“Once he sees me at weighins he’s going to flip the script, he’s not going to know what to do,” Gonzalez said. “He called out the wrong person. Once we’re both locked in that cage, it’s going to be hard to talk whenever there’s fists flying at your face. I’m not taking anything personally, I’m just there to handle business. But this is the hurt business, and he signed up for the wrong business.”
As far as how he plans on handling his business and earning a victory, Gonzalez gave his prediction on what to expect on August 9.
“In all of the wins I’ve ever had, I’ve never won by decision so expect a devastating knockout or a slick and fast submission,” Gonzalez said. “I’m hoping for the second round, first round if this guy’s lucky.”
Bring your popcorn because Gonzalez plans to put on a show in his hometown.
To watch him fight you can either purchase a PFC 46 ticket at peakfighting.com or you can stream the fight on the Peak Fighting Championship app by subscribing or purchasing the pay-per-view.