Courtesy photo Nashua PAL Boxing Club's Mike Fontanez, left, is shown here on the way to winning the 165-pound New England Golden Gloves championship.

Mike Fontanez hasn’t swung in anger at anyone in weeks, and he is not happy.

“I’m still working hard, still putting in the work. You can’t change it or control it,” said Nashua’s Fontanez, the reigning New England Golden Gloves 165-pound champion. “You just have to adjust and adapt.”

Adjust and adapt. Neither of those two should be confused with slowing down.

Somehow, some way Fontanez has stuck to his normal “two-workout-per-day” regimen.

“Road work, pushups, sit-ups, pull-ups, work in the ring, whatever it takes,” he said.

Just no sparring, no contact.

“There’s always something that I need to work on,” said Fontanez. “I’m talking to (Nashua PAL Boxing Club trainer Mo Brooks) all the time, and we constantly talk about what I need to be working on.”

Like most all gyms, the Nashua PAL Boxing Club is closed down due to coronavirus.

For a guy who may or may not have the keys, it provides some opportunity and a heck of a lot of loneliness, just to keep up with his training.

“It’s annoying,” said Fontanez. “But I’m a disciplined fighter, an honest fighter, I don’t need to be directed. I’m into this 100 percent, even on my own.”

Fontanez expected to be using this time to ramp up for the Golden Gloves Nationals, which he and PAL teammate, fellow New England champ Jesse Batanda, were heading off to in May.

That tournament has been bumped to August.

So Fontanez goes about the business of being an amateur, for now.

“Honestly, it’s just more time to get better for me,” he said. “I’m ready now, I’m ready tomorrow, I’m ready in August.

“All the training without hitting somebody? I kind of miss it, but it’s just going to make me hungry for August.”

Fontanez expected Nationals to be his last amateur event. Turning pro at age 24 topped on the agenda.

But the Olympic games in Tokyo have been bumped back by a year. And there are rumblings out of USA Boxing.

“Some of those top guys (on Team USA) could be turning pro,” he said. “They may not want to wait a year.

“I feel bad for some of those guys on that team. They worked so hard to make it, and now they have to wait. Some of those guys are older than me. At 24, I’m at an age where I could turn pro now, but if there’s a chance, the Olympics have always been a dream.”

Like most, Fontanez finds himself with more free time now, at least for a couple weeks. He’s been deemed essential at his job in Nashua with Triangle Credit Union.

He’ll be back to work there very soon.

For now, he’s caught up with reading, meditating and his PS4.

“For the first time in a long time, I’ve had some time to relax,” he said.

But Fontanez, as far as the ring goes, can be considered a modern-day minuteman.

“My focus right now is on the 24 hours ahead of me. That’s all I can look at,” he said. “I’m taking it day by day. It might be my last amateur event. It’s a big year for me coming up, no matter what decision I make. You can’t just play this sport. You have to be 100 percent dedicated to this.

“The fight community is really hurting. I need to stay focussed, stay positive in the hard times. There’s a big disappointment of not being able to fight, doing what you love, you make so many sacrifices just to fight.”

Right now, he can’t. But Fontanez isn’t slowing down. It just wouldn’t be his way.

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