Did you guys know 1983 was a pretty bad year for both Puerto Rican Wilfredo boys? (Benitez is actually known as Wilfredo is the island and they along with Wilfredo Vazquez are known as "los tres Wilfredo", had Wilfredo Rivera been given the win against Pernell Whitaker at least in fight one, as he should have, it would now be "los 4 Wilfredos!" Anyways, to my point: Wilfredo Gomez was supposed to fight Alfonso Zamora in San Juan in February of 1983 in a title defense of his WBC Super Bantamweight title. Zamora of course was a fabulous fighter who was well known in Puerto Rico also and was a heavy handed former WBA world bantamweight champion from Mexico, of all places. This fight was going to fill the Roberto Clemente Coliseum to the rafters just like the Carlos Zarate one had done 4 and a half years before. And Gomez had lost to Salvador Sanchez and come off a life and death war with Lupe Pintor two months before. But Zamora was also damaged goods and had lost like 4 of his 8 previous matches. He was really not seen as much of a challenge at this point in his career. The WBC at first seemed like they were going to sanction it but then decided not to and the fight did not take place. Gomez wound up fighting Ivan Samuco in the beautiful southern city of Ponce instead and getting an easy win in three over a courageous but obviously overmatched Curacaoan in April. I remember this match only because I was visiting my grandmother and aunt who lived 3 literal minutes by car from the stadium it took place at. If you ever go to Puerto Rico and venture out of the San Juan area, Ponce is the place. In fact they even have an airport you can fly to non-stop from the US. Anyways.. Even more outlandish, since the talks for a fight with Juan Laporte were seemingly not going anywhere at the time, and Gomez and Sammy Serrano were good friends (and for some reason, Roger Mayweather and Bobby Chacon were not being talked about, and neither was Hector Camacho around this point in time-Camacho talks surfaced in mid-1985), there talks about Gomez facing Ray Mancini for the American's WBA world lightweight title around December! The talks were so heated, even The Ring in Spanish had a feature about it! But of course, cooler heads prevailed again, and Gomez wound up fighting Panamanian Eladio Santana instead. This fight also had a bit to do with me. That same night we were moving to a new city and we drove by the Coliseum. I could tell it was packed! another easy win for Gomez. But two major fights-Zamora and Mancini-that went puff and with that the money Gomez was set to make! Benitez, meanwhile had given Tommy Hearns all Hearns could handle in a losing effort in the main event of the card that saw Gomez beat Pintor. Benitez seemed to still be near his prime and was only 23. Benitez beat Tony Cerda rather easily in May but in July was matched versus dangerous Mustafa Hamsho in a WBC middleweight eliminator contest. Benitez was widely favored, at least in Latin America, to win this fight and a fight with Marvelous Marvin Hagler, a super fight, was on the works for November n Las Vegas at the Caesar's Palace hotel. That fight would see Benitez attempt to become boxing's first ever 4 division world champion and a sell out was expected with Hollywood stars and everyone else in attendance. Im sure Benitez would have lasted 2 rounds, 3 at the most, with Hagler at this stage. Nevertheless, what happened? Roberto Duran beat the heck out of Davey Moore to win his third world title a month before and Benitez got beaten almost as bad by Hamsho. Duran got the title fight and 4th title try instead and fought a marvelous, pun intended, fight against Hagler and almost pulled it off! I guess you could say both Wilfredo's had a bad 1983, boxing career wise! And how about all those major fights forever lost between the two for that year, Gomez-Zamora, Mancini-Gomez and Hagler-Benitez!! I thought you'd like to know this!!
Benitez looked bad against Cerda. In retrospect, staying at middleweight was a mistake. Gomez would have been even more stupid fighting Mancini. That would have been a bad beating.
The Zamora fight got plugged because they found out Zamora had lied about having fights. He told them he had some fights in Mexico and had been active but when they tried to verify the bouts, Zamora had been found to have not told the truth.
At first I thought Benitez barely pulled it off but looking back on You Tube, I think he won rather easily. But he was expected to do much better. Cerda fought a good fight. At lightweight, Mancini had the potential iof giving Gomez a worse beating than Salvador Sanchez but quicker. even at 10-11 I never saw Gomez winning this.
I wonder if it was gonna be a doubleheader featuring Gomez-Zamora and Laporte-Castillo. Could be but I dont recall correctly.
