By Thomas Gerbasi

You can’t miss the smile on the face of Neeco Macias. It would be impossible to, considering that it’s there practically all the time. And in the business of boxing, that’s a notable trait.

“You've just got to be appreciative of what we've got in life, and boxing has really given me a lot to be happy about and smile about,” said the junior middleweight prospect, who returns to the ring this Saturday to face fellow unbeaten Marvin Cabrera.

In this day and age, that’s an attitude to be celebrated but, at the same time, you have to wonder what the reaction was the first time the ever-smiling Macias went from the gym where he learned his craft to other gyms where the mean-mug was the standard facial expression.

“The first gym I ever went to, they nicknamed me 'Smiley' and it kind of stuck,” he laughs. “But they've all seen me grow throughout the years of my amateur career, and we're all boxing family now and it's all cool.”

The reason is simple. You can be the nicest or the meanest kid in the room, but if you don’t perform when the gloves are on, you won’t be accepted. And whether in the gym or on fight night, the 27-year-old Macias has earned his respect, an even more impressive feat considering that he didn’t have his first amateur bout until he was 21. That meant a lot of learning in not a lot of time.

“We started in our garage and then we had to learn when we went to other gyms and met other fighters that had been doing it forever,” said Macias, who is trained by his father Al. “We wanted to be like them and learn from them, and we're still learning. We're learning from fighters and trainers and new kids every day.”

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By 22, Macias made his pro debut with a decision win over Francisco Ramirez in September 2013, and he’s been rolling along ever since, building a 16-0 record with nine knockouts. As with any up and comer, the competition has been spotty, but there have been some fellow prospects in there, and in his 2016 bout against Rolando Garza, he was facing a 9-0 foe and walking into the ring as the B side. He will be doing the same thing this weekend against Cabrera.

“We automatically assume it's going to be harder, and so it's almost bigger motivation in training,” Macias said. “And being on the B side, we feel like a cornered raccoon. And the only way out is through whoever's in front of us. So it is a big motivational thing. We fought a veteran a couple fights ago and he had so many losses, but he was the toughest fight I ever had. So we learn. And when they're undefeated, we bring it.”

That veteran, Cesar Soriano Berumen, entered their March 2017 bout with a 26-34-1 record, and while Macias did earn a wide unanimous decision win, he picked up a couple more notes for the knowledge bank he’s putting together at an accelerated rate thanks to that late start in the game. That means despite his current roll, he’s not overlooking Cabrera.

“You can never overlook a fight because then your best performance won't come out,” he said. “My first decision loss in the amateurs was a controversial loss in the Golden Gloves. But we were overlooking that fight to see if we were going to get sent to the Nationals. We overlooked it and lost a majority decision. So we learned from the amateurs that you take it one fight at a time and treat every fight like it's your biggest fight.”

It’s a good mindset to have, since every fight from here on out is the biggest one. A win and Macias moves forward. A loss, and he goes backward. That’s the black and white of this business, and despite his sunny attitude, Macias does get dead serious when discussing the present and the future.

“I know my fight team are all talking about the fights after this one, but I know better and I just look at one fight at a time,” Macias said. “All I care about right now is 17-0. And honestly, in a few days, it's gonna be September 1st. And if I'm 17-0, then in 2019, the sky is the limit.”

Then Neeco Macias smiles again.