Wilfredo Gomez v Howard Winstone

I'd tend to favour Winstone, but it's a hard fight to predict with Gomez having so little in the way of meaningful feather fights before Sanchez destroyed him.

By this point Gomez had let go a lot of the sublimely patient technical skill he had in his earlier peak days....he had a perfect style back then to methodically break down light-hitting, but relatively offensive minded textbook boxer-punchers without rock chins like Winstone as shown against Davila and Yum.

But by the time of the Laporte bout much of that was gone, due to his lifestyle and falling a bit too in love with his power(when he was never really a one shot fighter anyway, it was the sublime skills and hard hitting combo that allowed him to be such a consistent knockout artist).He didn't have the legs, finesse, reflexes or same offensive sharpness anymore.He was starting to look like a precision fighter that was losing that inherent balance that allows for such intricate high level slipping and countering.

There was something of a post-honeyghan Curry\post hand injuries inactive Conteh circa Parlov about him by that time and especially after sanchez.

Winstone's a totally different proposition than the woeful choking -throw 5 punches a round-performance LaPorte gave(still think he could have gave Wilfredo fits if he fought like he did against Sanchez or Chavez btw) and don't think Wilfredo hit as hard as Saldivar at 126.

So Wilfredo not having the legs or sharpness he would have employed to win a fight like this in the mid-70s manner that was so great to watch, i see him having to apply more of a grinding methodical approach with his combos and put a lot of punishment on Winstone, as he did with Pintor.He was never much of a jabber and Winstone's "light hitting Harold Johnson" approach on the outside would certainly control things there for long stretches against this less sharp feather Gomez.Wilfredo certainly can't outbox\outfinesse him at this stage in his career.

But gomez would still be bringing enough quality offensive output and combinations to make things competitive and eventually gruelling throughout, as Winstone isn't a defensive specialist or a safety first fighter.Gomez will probably have the better of the last 5 rounds, probably hurt Winstone at various points and maybe get a knockdown...but not to nearly the extent a sharper peak Saldivar did when he used his pressure and precision powerpunching to overhaul the even ten rounds of the first two fights with Howard with last third surges.

I'd see it as Winstone building up a big lead on the outside for most of the first ten rounds, winning maybe 7 or 8 of them, albeit not one sidedly.I'd say would be a competitive, fairly methodical fight at this point.Then Gomez coming into it more after ten, stepping up the pressure and having the edge as Winstone loses a bit of sharpness through having to work so hard to compensate for lacking power and probably trading a bit more than he should(as was his mentality when he started getting hit).Gomez landing more and them trading rounds with Gomez winning more in a gruelling fight.

Winstone 9-6'ish in a great fight.