Eighteen-year-old Vinny Varas works out in the gym his father Vincenzo Varas established at their Duplin County home last year when Vinny decided to pursue a career as a professional boxer. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
In his Gorillmottakar gym outside Mount Olive, Vincenzo Varas (left) coaches his son, Vinny Varas, who is working to become a professional boxer. Vincenzo offers training for adults and children, amateurs and pros, and competition and fitness. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Vinny Varas works out with the double-ended bag to improve coordination and accuracy. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Working with an aqua bag (which, as the name suggests, is filled with water) allows Vinny Varas to sharpen his defensive moves. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Hitting the punching bag — or heavy bag — gives Vinny Varas a chance to exert maximum power with his punches. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Like the heavy bag, the aqua bag takes hard punches from Vinny Varas. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Heisell Alvarenga is often present in the gym when her fiance Vinny Varas is training. She is currently pursuing her coaching license so that she can serve as his ‘cut person’ in the ring. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
In the gym behind their home, Vincenzo Varas (left) coaches his son Vinny Varas, who aspires to become a professional boxer. A Cuban flag is displayed in honor of the family’s heritage. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Eighteen-year-old Vinny Varas watches a lot of boxing.
“I watch a lot of the old-school guys,” he says, rattling off names like Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Joe Lewis, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Sonny Liston. “Salvador Sanchez, one of my favorite fighters of all time, was a Mexican fighter; he was on track to become one of the greatest fighters of all time, but unfortunately he lost his life in a motorcycle accident.”
In addition to studying the moves of those “old-school guys,” he also follows many of the sport’s current stars: Artur Beterbiev, Dmitry Bivol, David Benavidez, David Morrell and Gervonta Davis.
Last year, hunkered down in front of the TV, he saw a match that changed the trajectory of his life. “I remember watching a fight of Canelo, he’s a famous Mexican boxer. I was watching one of his fights, it was against Billy Joe Saunders. He knocked him out in the eighth round, if I’m not mistaken…That’s when he first became undisputed.”
Vinny explains that Canelo’s “undisputed” status meant that he had all the championship belts in his division. “When I saw him with the belts, I’m like, I could do that. It inspired me, like, OK, this is what I want to do. This is what I want to pursue.” It was at that moment that the North Duplin graduate set his sights on becoming a professional boxer.
Vinny, who works full-time as a Team Leader at Wal-Mart in Goldsboro and is close to completing his associate’s degree at James Sprunt Community College, has been studying martial arts under the tutelage of his father, Vincenzo Varas, since the age of four or five. After the Canelo fight, he called his dad and said, “I love everything you’ve been teaching me with martial arts and all, but would you be mad if we just did boxing, because I want to do it as a career?”
Vincenzo’s reaction? “I kinda got excited because it’s like re-living my dream, so I was like, yeah, let’s do it.” His dream of becoming a professional boxer had come to an abrupt end at the age of 24 when he sustained a traumatic knee injury.
Vincenzo’s love of boxing did not die with his dream, and he maintained a connection with the sport by spending years (he lived in Florida at the time) working for nonprofit organizations, rehabilitating at-risk youth and teaching them boxing and martial arts. When he moved to North Carolina in 2006, he went to work for Goldsboro Milling Company, first in human resources and then in management. Following a serious medical issue, he chose to retire, freeing him up to coach and manage Vinny.
The degree to which both father and son have embraced this endeavor can be measured by the fact that they have outfitted their own boxing gym behind their home on Beautancus Road, a few miles outside Mount Olive.
Despite having a gym in their backyard, Vincenzo insists that Vinny continue to train in a couple of other gyms, as well. “I believe in cross-training,” he explains, noting that it’s important for Vinny to “spar with other boxers and get other perspectives.”
Vincenzo goes on to point out that there are different styles of boxing: Mexican, Cuban, Russian (Soviet), and American. He learned to box in New York from a Russian boxer, so that’s the style he has shared with his son. But Vinny has also been coached in American style, and he’s currently receiving training in Mexican style from Venecio Pineda, his coach in Kinston.
“I have a lot of different styles, and I made ‘em all mine,” Vinny says.
His decision to become a professional boxer is driven, he explains, by his love of the sport. “I don’t think so much about becoming famous or becoming rich or nothing like that…I just enjoy the sport. I feel like that’s our most natural state. It’s part of our instincts to be fighting.”
One aspect of boxing that he most appreciates is the way in which it sharpens his focus. Once in the ring, he says, “there’s nothing else in the world except you and that person across from you. There’s no bills, there’s no outside stress, there’s no ‘anything’ outside.”
He admits there is an element of fear involved, “because the truth is, you don’t know what’s going to happen. You might get knocked out. You might lose a tooth. You might break your jaw. It’s dangerous.
“But, at the same time,” he continues, “that fear keeps you alert. Your fear of getting punched is what keeps you from getting punched. It keeps your mind tuned.”
He points out that boxing teaches him lessons that carry over into every other part of his life. “It’s about having heart,” he notes. “It’s about knowing that no matter how many times you fall, you get up, you get up, you get up. No matter what I do, I don’t give up.
“It’s the best way you can be because you know you can’t really fail at anything,” he adds. “You know you can’t fail if you’re giving it your all. And even if you do somehow fail, you know that you did your best, so you don’t get disappointed in yourself.”
This attitude accounts for the philosophical way in which he recalls his only amateur fight thus far. The decision didn’t go his way, with the referee stopping the fight before it reached its conclusion, citing a fear of injury to Vinny due to what she believed was a blow to the head. But both Vinny and Vincenzo insist that video of the match shows that Vinny actually took a defensive stance, taking a hit not to his head, but to his shoulder instead. “So there was no risk of injury,” Vincenzo concludes.
They submit that other aspects of the match were troublesome, as well, including the fact that Vinny’s originally-scheduled opponent canceled a few days before the match and was replaced by a fighter who was a little older and more experienced than Vinny.
But Vinny’s mindset prevents him from seeing the experience as anything other than positive. “I know that I gave it my best, so I know that I won for me. So, for me, it’s a personal win.”
As he looks to line up several more amateur fights, he insists, “I don’t really care whether I win or lose…I’m using it as a physical thing to get my body used to it.”
His goal is to turn pro when he’s 19 or 20, assuming, he says, that “my physical condition is where I need it to be.”
Vinny feels that since his father has begun coaching and managing him, their relationship has been strengthened.
“It’s definitely changed the dynamics,” adds Vincenzo. During Vinny’s childhood, he recalls, they had a typical father/child relationship, spending Friday nights getting pizza and seeing a movie. Now, he says, they have become best friends. “Over the last two years, we’ve come to realize how much we ended up having in common.”
Vincenzo is not the only person in Vinny’s corner, both literally and figuratively. Vinny’s fiancée, Heisell Alvarenga, is currently pursuing her coaching license so she can serve as his “cut person” during fights, tending to swelling, nosebleeds, and cuts.
Vinny sees his father and his fiancée as his heroes, but he is very clear that other members of his family — his mom, step-dad, and three sisters — are included on that “heroes list,” as well. “Everybody in my family,” he declares. “That’s what kind of pushes me and motivates me.”
Family is clearly important to both father and son. In their gym, Vincenzo has paid homage to his own parents, flying a Cuban flag (for his Cuban father) and — in a nod to his mother’s Nordic ancestry in Sicily — naming the gym “Gorillmottakar,” which is Old Norse for “gorilla defense.”
While the Gorillmottakar gym was created to help Vinny achieve his dream of becoming a professional boxer, it is also serving as a resource for others in the community, with Vincenzo offering a wide variety of training options — for children and adults, for amateurs and pros, for competition and fitness. Anyone interested is encouraged to contact Vincenzo Varas at 919-222-9033 or gorillmottakartactical@gmail.com. Information is also available on Instagram and Facebook by searching gorillmottakartactical.
