Faces Of New Bedford #146: Wilson Alix

Meet Wilson Alix, 23-year-old professional boxer.

Wilson moved to the US when he was 12 years old from Portugal. The transition for him was a bit difficult and during that time he got himself in a bit of trouble. At the age of 16 though, he saw two paths for himself and wanted to make sure that he went down the right one. Rather than use his fighting for bad, he decided to hone those abilities and began training with Jeffery Perez, who saw the potential Wilson had to become a professional boxer.

Continuing his training, he graduated high school and began college, all while working several jobs, like construction and personal training. As an amateur boxer, Wilson traveled all across New England, training in new gyms, sparring with other boxers and holding a record of 5-4, he diligently prepared himself to achieve his dreams of becoming a professional boxer. It was December of 2017 when he got the call that would change his life, he had been offered his first professional boxing match in February at Twin Rivers Casino.

Wilson had to make a tough decision of taking a chance and quitting his full-time job and deferring his enrollment at Bridgewater State, just to be able to take the chance of a lifetime. Although Wilson went on to lose his first fight, he walked away feeling more victorious than he had ever felt after his previous wins as an amateur. He had finally gotten to the point that he had always dreamed of while also understanding it was the start of the biggest journey of his life. With an amazing team behind him, Wilson is continuing to train for his next fight and growing in the sport of boxing.

“I just want to be able to show kids who don’t have hope or a vision of their dreams coming true, that with hard work and focus you can achieve those dreams.”

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Faces of New Bedford is a project by Colton Simmons. If you are interested in booking a shoot or getting prints from the series email all inquiries to colton@coltonsimmons.com.

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Read more of the Faces of New Bedford series here.