During the series premiere of Lucha Underground, it was obvious that this was not going to be just another wrestling promotion.
Its mix of Mexican telenovela-style presentation, the grittiness that was the Temple where matches took place and unique character roster immediately captivated viewers. One particular member of the roster from that first episode was a masked female wrestler by the name of Sexy Star.
Not only did she made herself into an immediate star on the roster by having an intergender match with Son of Havoc on that episode, she became an increasing icon of women’s wrestling. Even though she lost to Son of Havoc, Lucha Underground commentators Matt Stryker and Vampiro called her a warrior — she was on SOH's level.
One thing to note from Sexy Star’s appearance was her introductory vignette: she was boxing, something that Dulce Gonzalez, the name of the woman who plays Sexy Star on the show, had been doing for several years. That small scene of her boxing on Lucha Underground was just a foreshadowing of what was to come.
Gonzalez is now about a month away from making her professional boxing debut, less than 10 months after she unmasked herself at a boxing event alongside her husband, three-time boxing world champion Jhonny Gonzalez.
“Whenever I wasn’t out taping for Lucha Underground, I’ve been training for boxing and waiting for this opportunity to come along,” Gonzalez told Fightful. “As time passed and for various different reasons, I’ve had to change plans to make this possible, but I’ve been able to only take a short time to make this a reality.”
Contrary to many reports, Gonzalez did not retire from the sport of pro wrestling, but instead is focusing on her second career. It wasn’t her marriage to a pro boxer that sparked her interest, but more so her lifelong love of the sport and current opportunities that made the former Lucha Underground champion make the transition at 34 years old.
“I’ve always been a boxing fan,” Gonzalez said. “The story that led to this, or rather, the story of Sexy Star, began with me training in wrestling, the first sport that isn't wrestling in which I trained. Over the years, I’ve had that competitive fire in me and in the past, I’ve tried to schedule amateur matches, but my opponents never showed up. I still wanted to compete and that’s when the opportunity to do wrestling first appeared. Time passes and then I met my husband Jhonny Gonzalez, who’s also a pro boxer. To relive that training process, get up in the morning and run, train with him, I really enjoyed it, so much so, that I wanted to do this.”
Her transition to the sport did involve having to train in the sport of boxing, something that she admitted was far different than the training she endured to become a pro wrestler. While being a wrestler and a boxer both involve having a tough mentality to withstand the gruesome and tiring process, both require vastly different characteristics to succeed.
“I think in some regards, training for both wrestling and boxing is the same thing,” Gonzalez said. “Training is high-impact and you need a lot of stamina to endure the training, but once you actually get in the ring, it’s the complete opposite. In wrestling, your body has to be extremely tough to be able to handle and take a lot of bumps and be prepared and at the right place for when someone is hitting their offense on you, especially aerial offense. Boxing is completely different. You need to be quick and agile and use your hips a lot as well as move your legs a lot. I feel good and confident in my ability to have a good career in boxing.”
Now, less than a year after that famous unmasking, Gonzalez had been preparing herself for her upcoming debut. Competing at women’s bantamweight, which is a 105-pound limit, Gonzalez only competed in just five amateur fights, four of which she has won. While she may not know who her opponent. Gonzalez won’t stop until she has found her way to the top.
After all, overcoming adversity is something she's used to.
