Photo: Giuseppe Moffa – Christopher Guerrero, Euri Cedeno and Wilkens Mathieu
When an opportunity arose for Wilkens Mathieu to spend a week in Northeast Philadelphia, the fast-rising super middleweight prospect accepted immediately.
He figured he’d sharpen his skills, and acquire some new techniques ahead of his next fight, June 27 in Quebec City against Adagio McDonald.
But midway through his first sparring session against Edwine Humaine Junior, Mathieu realized he had also arrived at a crossroads.
At Philly’s Next Champ, a low-slung bunker of a gym where former welterweight champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis is the featured pupil, and lightweight contender Andy Cruz is the rising star, the timer for sparring is set to four minutes, and the rest intervals are just 30 seconds. After a handful of rounds, Mathieu felt his energy wane while Humaine seemed to gain strength.
Photo: Giuseppe Moffa – Andy Cruz and Christopher Guerrero
Mathieu realized that Philadelphia’s gym wars were no longer just boxing folklore. They were real life. He was in one right now, and facing a choice: succumb to a difficult situation, or find a solution on the fly.
Mathieu chose to fight, using his jab to create space between himself and the hard-charging Humaine while learning a valuable lesson about managing his energy wisely, whether in a sparring session or a world title fight.
“When you go in there, they really want to knock you out. It’s kill or be killed,” said Mathieu, who is 13-0 with nine knockouts. “It builds your character. It’s good because you’re not in your comfort zone. You have to learn to be comfortable in your discomfort zone.”
Photo: Vincent Ethier – Wilkens Mathieu
Fighting in front of his hometown fans on June 27, Mathieu plans to implement the wisdom he picked up in Philly against McDonald, a free-swinging southpaw who could present the toughest test of his career. McDonald’s 8-1 record includes six knockouts, his only loss a technical decision in a close fight that was stopped two rounds early.
Mathieu says his day-to-day training in Montreal, where he works with head coach Giuseppe Moffa, keeps him prepared for any challenge, but says that week in Philadelphia helped him fine-tune his skills and fighting spirit.
Photo: Vincent Ethier – Giuseppe Moffa and Christopher Guerrero
His teammate Christopher Guerrero, the W.B.C. Continental Americas welterweight champion, already knew how much a quick trip to Philly’s Next Champ can help. Last spring, Guerrero headed there to spar with Ennis, then returned home to record a highlight-reel knockout win over Kenny Larson. And last month he returned to Philadelphia to spar 18 rounds with Cruz.
The sessions themselves were all business – Cruz, Guerrero, Humaine and Mathieu all were deep into preparations for scheduled bouts – but also intensely personal.
Moffa says that combination is exactly what Mathieu needed.
Photo: Vincent Ethier – Antonin Décarie, Mike Moffa, Patrick Mathieu, Wilkens Mathieu, Camille Estephan and Giuseppe Moffa back in August 2024
“He loves it. They trash talk. They fight. It’s very competitive. He loved that part of sparring,” said Moffa, who recently took over from his father, Mike, as Mathieu’s head coach. “It was some of the best work he’s ever had.”
Moffa also acknowledges that Mathieu and Guerrero are in a delicate position.
In the right situation, elite-level sparring is a rite of passage for young pros. Going rounds with a world champion is boxing’s equivalent of apprenticing with a master craftsman. Think Larry Holmes spending his early career in Muhammad Ali’s camp, or a teenage Oscar De La Hoya sharing a ring with Julio Cesar Chavez.
Photo: Giuseppe Moffa – Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and Christopher ‘Machine Gun’ Guerrero back in December 2023
But Moffa cautions that too much time as a secondary character in a superstar’s training camp presents its own risks. Young fighters with championship talent could wind up typecast as lifetime sparring partners, never emerging from the headliner’s shadow. And they could also, under the sheer physical strain of all that sparring, simply fail their full potential.
So while Mathieu is eager for another trip to Philly, he recognizes that sparring is a training tool, and not a substitute for real competition.
The main differences?
Competitive fights don’t include headgear.
Photo: Vincent Ethier – Wilkens Mathieu
They also feature smaller gloves – 10 ounces, instead of 16-ounce models typically used in sparring – and much bigger audiences. Nobody outside the gym witnessed those sparring sessions with Humaine, but he’ll face McDonald at Centre Videotron, which seats nearly 20,000 people, in a bout streamed worldwide online.
“It’s easy to do something when nobody’s looking at you. You don’t have the stress, don’t have the pressure,” he says. “But when you’re in a fight you;ve the world looking at you. You have the pressure. It’s not the same. Pressure makes you perform differently.”
From here, Mathieu says, the pressure will only increase, rising with the calibre of his opponents. If his development continues at its current rate, Mathieu thinks he can win a world title within three years.
Photo: IG / Adagio ‘La Bête’ McDonald (8-1, 6 KOs)
Before that he’ll have to pass a test against McDonald, a thick-limbed power puncher from Lille, in northern France. Two weeks before the bout McDonald posted an Instagram video of a high-intensity, sweat-soaked treadmill sprint. In the caption he mentioned that he had broken a personal record, and the implied message was that he intended to set a fast pace against Mathieu.
But Mathieu says he welcomes it.
If McDonald tries to steamroll him, Mathieu says he’s ready mentally. His time in Philadelphia prepared him.
And tactically, he says he’s more than equipped.
“He’s going to try to knock me out, but if you try to knock me out that’s the worst thing you can do because I’m a really good counterpuncher,” he says. “He’s going to leave me an opening, and he’s going to get knocked out cold.”
