Featherweight Vic Pasillas left Los Angeles to start a new life in the Bay Area and now he returns a little over a decade later with a fight broadcast on DAZN.

Pasillas faces Carlos Jackson on Thursday at The Avalon in Hollywood, California. 

Pasillas, 17-1 (10 KOs), returns to the ring after a 14-month layoff. He turned professional in 2011, and now, 14 years later, he is at a point where he is able to go full circle and fight for his friends and fans in Southern California. Pasillas remembered the transition from living in Los Angeles to moving to Redwood City, California, where he now resides. Pasillas was brought up north to spar Nonito Donaire in 2013. 

“By November 2014, I ended up moving up to the Bay Area myself,” Pasillas told BoxingScene. “I didn’t have my place. They had to go back down to LA for about a month-and-a-half while I was here.”

A lot has changed. One person who has seen it first-hand is Pasillas’ cutman and strength and conditioning coach, Mike Bazzel. 

“He’s doing good. He makes a living without boxing,” Bazzel told BoxingScene. “When you're young and you’re talented, you can take things for granted, that you're signed. You take for granted that you have a manager who gives you a stipend. You take for granted all these things. Now it's this. This is it. You're 33.”

Pasillas lost to Ra’eese Aleem in a bout poised to elevate a junior featherweight contender in 2021. His return in 2024 against Jorge Villegas in Redwood City saw Pasillas miss weight. Pasillas now credits his wife, Jasmine, for his weight loss as she became his nutritionist for this fight. Before, he always wanted to do things his way but now he has passed over the reins and fixed his sights solely on training.

“It is crazy how focused I've been for this training camp,” Pasillas said. “I woke up today at 129lbs, ate three full meals yesterday. I just ate a huge meal right now and I’m 131lbs and I haven’t trained or run today.”

Time is fleeting at this point in Pasillas’ career. The once bright-eyed prospect is a seasoned veteran who hopes for big opportunities if he succeeds on fight night. 

“I’m just absorbing every single moment for what it is,” Pasillas said. “Being my age and being at the level I am at right now, I believe as an amateur, I never really got to enjoy the process. This is the first training camp where I enjoyed every single moment, the tough parts, the hard parts, the achy parts, the exhaustion, and I never once showed my emotion, never showed I was tired. I never once showed my frustration. Everything was just dialed in on Carlos Jackson.”

Pasillas hopes that his return home to his Los Angeles roots starts a remarkable final act to his career. The last time Pasillas fought in Los Angeles it was during the pandemic, in 2020, when he stopped unbeaten Ranfis Javier Encarnacion.

“He’s going to come forward. He’s going to want to fight,” Pasillas said of Jackson. “Those are the fighters that let me show my best art. Those are the fighters that let me paint the best canvas.”