Alfonso Salvador Gómez Becerra vs. Omar Alonzo Chávez Carrasco

This beef is on a low simmer on social media, with verbal jabs flying in Mexican outlets for the last month. Gómez in particular wants the fight, and has been putting Chávez on blast and making fan polls asking it people want to see him beat up the hijo de leyenda. Weird call-out, right? Well, they were at one point in very early stages to have met, about seven years ago now, in April or May of 2012 (and about a year and a half before that, Gómez was officially signed to fight Omar's brother Julio Jr., but was forced to withdraw on a week's notice with a left elbow ligament tear - which is the very same injury that has sidelined him for years now). Sandwiched between his courageous yet brutally painful defeat to Canelo and his gutsy & hard-fought but clear points loss to Shawn Porter, he was supposed to have taken a tuneup...and had it gone down, he might well have avoided embarking upon the only back-to-back losing skid of his career. Now, however...?

Gómez, remembered mostly for appearing in the first season of reality TV series The Contender in 2005 and for subsequently knocking out past-prime versions of Arturo Gatti and José Luis Castillo, and for getting absolutely thrashed by a prime undefeated Miguel Cotto - hasn't fought in over four years now. He was on a decent run when last seen in the ring - with victories over Ed Paredes and Yoshihiro Kamegai ranking among his personal best (alongside the aforementioned Gatti & JLC, plus Ben Tackie, Ahmad Kaddour, Peter Manfredo, and Jesús Soto Karass - but four years is a long time, especially for a man who in a few months will be turning 40 and was only ever sort of a B+ overachiever (by world class standards) in the first place.

Chávez, as mediocre as he is, has at least kept active. Since his rival defeated Kamegai, the less famous prizefighting son of J.C. Superstar has gone 6-2 and has fought twice in the last year. This compounds his advantages in being the younger man (by a decade), fresher despite having logged more contests & rounds (albeit on a much less punishing schedule, and given his second-generation boxing royalty status he probably never had to "pay his dues" in the gym as fresh meat for his more advanced training partners to practice on in sparring...) and 2" taller with 4" more reach. On top of all that, he now has a new trainer in 2-division world champ Daniel Zaragoza.

I always liked Gómez, so I hope this isn't him biting off more than he can still chew. If he is still fit enough to go ten, and can summon a bit of vintage form, I can see him pulling this off - but "The Businessman" has never been stopped, and much harder punchers than Alfonso have tried. If his gas tank isn't up to snuff, I can see Chávez outworking him, and if he's truly shot to bits, stopping him. If they're both on point, the scoring might be largely impacted by the venue: either Guadalajara or Culiacán would probably have to be ruled out in favor of neutral ground. Alfonso has issued the challenge to meet in Cancún this September, probably on Mexican Independence Day weekend.

 

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75% voted yes

 

No love for Gomie?