Wilfredo Gomez

Prime wilfredo gomez at 122 is one of the most complete and impressive fighter ever at any weight IMO.

He could box from the outside, could fight on the inside, had massive power, brilliant movement and balance, good chin and a deadly finisher. Also pre sanchez he has a calm presence in the ring, he knew he would get to his opponents and took his time but when he had you in touble he didn't let you off.

The best super bantamweight ever, clearly. I'd love to see him v a peak olivares at this weight, it would be in my top 5 fantasy fights without doubt, i think peak olivares is the only one with a decent shout of beating a prime gomez at 122, maybe jofre as well but i've not seen enough footage to give a decent judgement

 

I've always felt he got away from his technical ability as his career progressed, and focused too much on slugging and going for the KO. Even in his fight with Davila I remember, he was controlling the fight with his boxing skills most of the way, but then at one point just decided to start slugging, unneccessarily. When he fought Derrick Holmes (just before Sanchez I believe) I thought he looked very wide-open and sloppy, and almost got himself KO'd at one point as a result. I always felt the outcome of the Sanchez fight was partly the cumulitive result of years of letting his style deteriorate.

 

He did take it to Davila more at certain portions of the fight than others, but only because he could, IMO. He was more or less just testing out his skills from every angle of the fight. It speaks very highly of his ability that he was able to do this to a boxer of Davila's caliber.

But on the whole I agree with your post.:thumbsup

 

The super bantamweight division in general is better now, than during the era of Gomez. Nowadays the division has Rafael Marquez, Isreal Vazquez and Celestino Caballero and a rising star like juan manuel lopez. I know people are going to say 'o gomez would school all of these guys'. But the division he ruled is weaker than today's era. I mean all 3 of those guys i mentioned are in the p4p rankings.

 

That probably says more about the state of game overall then anything brown.

Vasquez would be a mere contender in the Morales-MAB-Jones era let alone Gomez's.

Gomez-Zarate-Pintor among others seems pretty strong to me.

 

Sometimes i wonder if Gomez' supposed ineffectiveness at higher weights gets a bit too much milage.

I mean the two guys to beat him at Feather were two of the greatest in history. Weight excuses or not Gomez got off to a shocking start vs Sanchez but hung in well and put up a reasonable fight. This was a fantastic opponent, a truly great fighter on top of his game.

By the time Gomez fought Nelson he was undoubtably well on the downslide and in boxing years was quite ancient due to the many wars and much partying. Nelson by contrast was comparatively very young. A bit less than a year before the Nelson fight Gomez beat a good barometer that was Juan Laporte.

Perhaps if Gomez stayed at Feather after Sanchez rolled him we would have seensome much better form. I certainly think he would have proved himself anything but "ineffective". As stated elsewhere he lost his absolute peak very early. I agree.

 

Agree to an extent. I just feel Gomez is one of those Pryor-type guys; great at his prime weight, average at others (or probably would've been average due to his frame)

Lockridge was way past prime so I discount that. It WAS a robbery though IMO

 

I didn't even mention Lockridge because Gomez was obviously very ordinary to what he'd been. I don't think ring age helped him much vs Nelson either.

Pryor's prime weight, according to many should have actually been 135 :hey

 

of course, as Pryor only moved up to chase bigger fights. Wasn't Arguello the premier LW at the time anyway??? So he got that fight anyway lol

 

I think also in an era without the 122 division you would have seen Gomez down at bantam..for at least the early part of his title career.

 

Arguello was about a year short of that. Would've been Watt and Espana or Kenty i'd say.

 

Fair enough I can't imagine any of those wnting to fight Pryor!

 

Gomez was the greatest 122 lb fighter in history, IMO. He was ideally suited for the 122 lb class and his absolute peak came probably against Carlos Zarate in 1978, but there are flashes of absolute brilliance to be seen in many of his fights prior to and after that fight as well. He was a crippling, devastating puncher with a certain cruel way of dispatching those shots of his. He would crush his opposition before disposing of them, and with a certain cool detachment, though he took certain liberties in his handling of a hurt and helpless Zarate in the 4th and the final 5th, kind of like a predator animal eager for the kill. Just before turning it on against Zarate he displayed catlike, clever moves, staying just out of harms way, but always ready to pounce on Carlos, which he did with suddenness in round 4. He was an example of a fighter who was ideally suited for a particular division, in his case 122, and never was quite a dominant as he moved up. The wisdom to stay where you're most effective, like Carlos Monzon and Marvin Hagler displayed is an anomoly in the sport, and this is always my point when threads come up about those two greats and why they didnt move up to fight Bob Foster or Michael Spinks for instance. Gomez struggled at times and looked downright mortal in the heavier weight classes that he ventured into, but he was a super-fighter in the 122 division, and especially in the mid to late 70's. During that time I think he looked like one of the greatest fighters p4p that I've ever seen..just a devastating puncher.

 

I think that the appearance of wide-openess and sloppiness had something to do with the blinding speed of the challenger, and the way his bell was rung almost immediately out the gate. For a fleeting moment, it appeared that Gomez was not absolutely invincible at 122.

Derrik Holmes made Wilfredo's national television debut in the USA a most ignominious one by dropping him three times in the first round for a TKO win in the opening round of a tournament for the 1974 North American super bantamweight title. He was much faster than Gomez, and had the confidence of that previous win behind him when they had their professional rematch six years later. It looked like Holmes might repeat that amateur blowout when he had Gomez out on his feet with the same deadly rights that once blew away the Puerto Rican, but Bazooka had gotten much stronger over the years, and of course had since obtained a world of experience and poise.

Regardless of the lack of professional experience Holmes had, I still thought it was a gutsy choice of a nationally televised defense for Gomez. Derrik was utterly unimpressed by his glittering professional reputation, and started out entirely convinced he would repeat his earlier triumph, this time on the stage of NBC's Friday Night Fights.

Gomez was coming off another nationally televised nontitle win over Eddie Ndukwu on ABC. Unlike Holmes, Ndukwu, another decorated amateur competitor, immediately cowered into a peek-a-boo posture when the bell rang, and seemed to have allowed himself to be intimidated into submission before even entering the ring. At the end of round one (through which Eddie somehow managed to remain upright), Gomez solicitously draped his arm around the obviously overmatched Nigerian's shoulders. A succession of knockdowns were sustained by Ndukwu over the remaining three rounds. In mid-ring, Wilfredo hit him with a knockdown punch which sent Eddie careening backwards and down towards the lower ropes. Gomez ran after him, and actually caught him to prevent him from falling out and over on his head! (It reminded me of Floyd Patterson trying to help distressed opponents during the heat of battle.)

Derrik Holmes was no Eddie Ndukwu, but Wilfredo kept his cool, weathered the storm with his subsequently acquired strength and conditioning, then busted his jaw. (Holmes after the fight: "I feel like I have no jaw. He's much stronger than I thought.") Gomez-Holmes is a textbook example of how to cope with a much faster adversary.

When he won that title, it might be worth keeping in mind that Dong Kyun Yum made him get off the deck in the starting round. Considering how Holmes starched him in the amateurs, then nearly repeated the feat six years later, I wondered at the time whether tearing immediately out of the corner at the opening bell to try catching him cold and flatfooted might provide the best chance to dethrone him. (I don't hold his poor performance against Carlos Mendoza against him, as he was also coping with a flu in that one.) Later, Sanchez also dropped him in the opening seconds, and had him reeling around like a drunk sailor, and the clues to this possibility were certainly present in his boxing history.


Overconfidence wiped out any chance he had with Sanchez. After, he seemed to lose that veneer of supreme arrogance he'd been carrying about. Being deprived of any hope at redemption in a rematch by Sal's untimely demise had to have been crushing to his morale.

Even before Gomez squared off with Sanchez, he was criticized for defensive lapses and occasionally exhibiting a walk in style. As he moved up in weight, he might have been better off cultivating his mobility, skill and defensive elusiveness, but seemed to abandon that in favor of a power based approach. He gave ground to Zarate, drawing the taller man in. He should have replicated that strategy with Sanchez, but instead played into Sal's counterpunching hands.

Although the epic with Pintor is widely considered to be his legacy performance at 122 today, Zarate was a monumental achievement at the time, and cements his place at the top of that division in my mind.