Wilfredo Gomez died at 69. The Puerto Rican Hall of Famer had been hospitalized for roughly two weeks with respiratory complications. A cause of death has not been confirmed.
Paco Valcarcel, the former WBO president, announced it on social media, calling Gomez “my eternal champion.” WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said Gomez “is now resting in peace” and was “one of the greatest fighters of all-time.”
The Record Tells You What Kind of Fighter He Was
Gomez finished 44-3-1 with 42 knockouts. Forty-two knockouts in 44 wins. He did not win decisions, he ended fights, and he did it across three weight classes.
He held the WBC junior featherweight title, the WBC featherweight title and the WBA junior lightweight title. His reign at 122 pounds was built almost entirely on stoppages, which is the thing people who saw him fight always mention first.
Before any of that he represented Puerto Rico at the 1972 Olympics and won the inaugural world amateur championships in Havana in 1974.
He Is Remembered for the Wrong Fight
In 1981, Salvador Sanchez stopped Gomez in the eighth round. It was the first loss of his professional career and it has followed his name for 45 years.
That is unfair, and it is how boxing memory works. Gomez moved up in weight to challenge one of the greatest featherweights who ever lived and lost. The fight is a classic precisely because Gomez was great enough to make it one.
Three years later he came back and beat Juan Laporte for the WBC featherweight title at the weight where Sanchez had beaten him. Then he moved up again and outpointed Rocky Lockridge over 15 rounds for the WBA junior lightweight belt. Those are the fights that define a career. The Sanchez loss is the one that gets replayed.
The Zarate Fight Was His Masterpiece
In 1978 Gomez stopped Carlos Zarate in the fifth round. Zarate was an elite bantamweight champion in his prime, and Gomez took him apart.
If you want one fight that explains why he went into the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the class of 1995, that is the one.
What He Meant at Home
He was born near San Juan in October 1956 and became one of the faces of an era when Puerto Rico produced champion after champion. For a generation of fans on the island, Bazooka was the standard every fighter after him got measured against.
His later career closed the way most do, with losses to Azumah Nelson and Alfredo Layne. Nobody who watched him in the late 1970s will remember those.
He is survived by his wife and four children.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.