Wilfredo Gomez

Well spoken, head-to-head at 122 lbs there wouldn´t be that many fighters IMO who would trouble him...

 

Gomez would have slaughtered these guys today AND would have enjoyed doing it!

 

I agree. All you really have to do is see the Gomez-Zarate fight to be convinced. In many ways, Gomez was more coldly efficient than Duran as a killer, and he had great, great skills and cunning. He was not just a puncher. He didn't have Duran's longevity, or his ability to compete at higher weights, but at 122, and for a while at 127, he was supreme.

 

What do you define as a contender? Is a guy with a padded record like Larry Barnes, Hugo Pineda or Mamadou Thiam a contender? Is a shot to **** Camacho, Pendleton or Whitaker a contender?

As for Gomez only beating 5 or 6 world champs, I'm sure if they had an IBF belt floating around during his prime he would have beaten a couple more.

 

Trindad's resume is better, you know it.

 

Trinidad's resume may be better, but it is not so far superior so as to rule out people placing Zarate and Gomez ahead of him if they thought (as I do) that they both LOOKED better than Tito in their primes.

Just to take another example, Erik Morales probably has a better resume than Tito (especially if you don't grant Tito the DLH win), but I still place Tito higher on the basis that he looked better in his prime than Morales did.

 

Carlos Zarate's record is heavily padded, yeah everyone looks great against the bums.

 

Here is some interesting info about Gomez - Zarate:

Zarate last defends Bantamweight Title on June 09, 1978.

Zarate beats Rudy Gonzalez in an over the weight match on Sept. 30, 1978.

Thirty days later, for Gomez Superbantam title fight on 10/28/78,
both fighters were over 124lbs on first attempt at scales. Zarate had to make four trips to make 122lbs. (day of the fight I think)

Zarate gets TKO'ed in 5 rounds. Zarate looked dried out to me, but it is the fighters responsibility to be at weight.

The Zarate TKO reminded me of when Bobby Chacon had to lose a bunch of weight and was destroyed by Ruben Olivares.

Whether Zarate could have performed better in a rematch we will never know because he didn't ask for one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51ipdYZquZ0

Be sure to note Gomez hits Zarate when he is down on the canvas.

But Gomez gets his just returns via Mister Sanchez 3 years later.

 

Sure it has some filler, but so what, he did face some decent fighters and did perform exceptionally when he did face them.

He didn't look good against Gomez, but as Longhhorn points out in the previous post, Zarate was weight drained, and probably as a result of being sick and not being able to train properly to shed the pounds needed to make weight.

 

Gomez of the late '70s looked like the best pound-for-pound - ever. His opponents at that time weren't much cop, but he stood out like a fat bird in the Playboy mansion. Except he was only little. Little, but not little enough to fit into the more historically rich 118lbs division, which is a shame. Wasn't big enough to fit into the 126lbs division either, so he was left to fill the ghostly 122lbs void which was, at that time, all but starved of talent. Gomez came and rescued it, and brilliantly so - gliding like Pep, hitting like Robinson and thinking like Duran, Gomez the Wizard imbued all the past powers of the greats and crafted his own offensively-defensive style that worked magnificently. He toyed with his opponents; poked them, prodded them, scared them, then broke their ribs or nose. Professional fighters looked foolish and intimidated as Gomez bore in, jabbing and tapping, feeling and feinting but at the same time, not being hit - at all. Slipping punches by a millimetre, ducking them in succession, floating in and out like a wraith. Then he just bashed **** out of 'em.

 

Then ran into Sanchez, who he was favoured to beat, and got a spanking.

 

Indeed, however, Gomez was slowed by that point. His training habits were lackluster at best, and even before the Sanchez fight, Gomez' diminished speed and agility was there for all to see. Sanchez was Sanchez though, and was roughly on par with even the best Gomez - but bigger. I never did agree that Sanchez totally shut him out, though... The fight was closer than those pesky Mexicans would like to think - Sanchez didn't outclass Gomez, he just took it better and dished it out better.

 

Gomez's punch resistance wasn't as quite firm against Sanchez, who was a decent hitter at featherweight, certainly not devastating. And when Gomez was dumped on his butt during the first round by a left hook when fresh and alert, maybe featherweight was a bridge too far. Never stopped during his career until he moved up, with Nelson and Layne also stopping him at featherweight. Sometimes it happens, a fighter moves up one division and never the same again.

When Gomez was stopped against Sanchez on the ropes during the 8th he took a hell of a lot of flush punches before disappearing. Right hands were the damaging blows if memory serves me correctly.

 

I've seen better finishes by Sanchez - against Gomez, he cracked him with one right to the jaw which sank him, but the follow up was just a wild flurry - many missed.

 

Yeah, but the ones Sanchez landed were pretty flush, and a couple in particular were rather full on shots. Some shots were missed, agreed.

I would say one of the best finishes I have ever seen when a fighter is raining punches towards a wounded opponent. Pryor's finish against Arguello. A very good two handed assualt If I ever seen one. When Arguello staggered back against the ropes from the centre of the ring, Pryor's volume and accuracy was rather sickening. All blows delivered from either hand in succession around the temple and jaw.