Julian Gonzalez will have plenty of fans from his hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania in the building for his fight against Rosalindo Morales on Friday night.

Morales, the most formidable opponent of the 21-year-old Gonzalez’s career, won’t be the least bit intimidated. The man Morales calls his “guardian angel” will sit ringside at Wind Creek Event Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where Allen Smith will watch Morales box for the first time in the biggest fight of the undefeated southpaw’s career.

Nearly 19 years ago, when Morales was just 10, Smith and his late wife went well out of their way to help Morales, his mom, Annette, and his younger sister, Molly, when those three strangers needed it most.

They had fled their home in Devine, Texas, a “toxic, dangerous environment” in which they were abused by Morales’ alcoholic father, to live with Annette’s sister and her husband near Pittsburgh. With barely any money and basically the clothes on their backs, their station wagon broke down in Nashville and was beyond repair.

Smith met them in the parking lot of the gas station at which they were stranded.

“We didn’t know what we were gonna do,” Rosalindo Morales told BoxingScene.com. “Lo and behold, some guy comes up in a white van. He was dressed in a nice suit, business attire. He stopped and asked us if we needed help. We told him our situation. He said, ‘Stay here. I’ll be right back.’ He said that he talked to his wife, and he said, ‘You guys can come stay with us. We wanna help you guys out and get things figured out for you guys.’

“His wife had food ready for us, a nice, hot meal. We ended up staying with them for six days, until we could get things situated. He bought us bus tickets to Pennsylvania. He pretty much saved our lives. My mom, my sister and I, we like to call him and his wife at the time our guardian angels. They really looked after us and took care of us. I don’t know what we would’ve done if they hadn’t done what they did.”

Tickets to this fight couldn’t begin to repay Smith for his remarkable kindness, but it’s important to Morales to have Smith’s support during a fight Showtime will televise as part of its long-running prospect series, “ShoBox: The New Generation.” Gonzalez (8-0-1, 8 KOs) and Morales (9-0, 2 KOs) will meet in an eight-round junior lightweight fight that’ll open a three-bout broadcast scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET.

The 29-year-old Morales, who served in the Marines, also wants to repay his supportive wife, Hanna, and their 4-year-old daughter, Gabbi, because his full-time job as a laborer at Ellwood Quality Steels in New Castle, Pennsylvania, combined with boxing training, completely consumes his time. Morales, who also resides in New Castle, works 12-hour shifts at the steel mill and switches from days to midnights every other week.

“It’s very challenging,” Morales said. “Luckily, I have the great support from my wife and daughter. I mean, I wouldn’t be able to do it if they didn’t believe in me as much as they do, because obviously I have to sacrifice all that time away from my family.”

Morales, who won the Pennsylvania Golden Gloves’ 141-pound championship in 2016, temporarily quit boxing after Gabbi was born in 2018 because balancing so much personally and professionally became almost impossible.

“I decided to take a little break,” Morales said, “but I just couldn’t stay away.”

The Mexican-American’s fight against Gonzalez will mark Morales’ fourth bout in the past 10 months. Signing with Integrity Fighter Management, a Pittsburgh-based company, has helped Morales maintain a level of activity that working without a manager or promoter made extremely difficult.

“Hopefully, when I do win this fight,” Morales said, “it’ll propel me to do this boxing full-time, where I can really focus on boxing, so I can get to that next level. That’s what my goal really is, to do boxing full-time.”

Gonzalez is represented by Marshall Kauffman’s King’s Promotions, the organizer of this card. The younger puncher is considered the ‘A’ side of their bout, but Morales senses that his determination will set them apart.

“I started boxing when I was 13,” Morales said. “I’ve been fighting my whole life. To get an opportunity like this means the world to me. My family has always supported me. I’ve worked so hard my whole life for this opportunity. I believe with my heart, my determination and my skills, I’m gonna take this kid out.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.