By Scott Gilfoid: After Vitali Klitschko’s huge 8th round stoppage over WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter on Saturday night, Vitali didn’t elaborate on his future plans inside the ring other than mentioning Nikolay Valuev, the WBA heavyweight champion, as a potential fight. However, Vitali’s mandatory challenger is Juan Carlos Gomez, who recently defeated Vladimir Virchis to get the number #1 spot to fight the winner of Peter vs. Vitali. As of now, Klitschko will either have to take the fight against Gomez, 35, or consider vacating the title. Gomez, a former WBC cruiserweight champion between 1998 to 2002, successfully defended his title 10 times before giving it up to move to the heavyweight division in 2002.

Since that time, Gomez’s career had stalled for the most part, after he was knocked out in the first round by Yanqui Diaz in 2004. Gomez rebounded from the defeat, beating Oliver McCall and Denis Bakhtov, among many other good fighters. However, it wasn’t until his win over Virchis that Gomez was finally in position to get a title shot. It’s unfortunate, though, that it’s probably going to be coming against a fighter as large and as skilled as the 6’7″ Klitschko. Gomez, whose style of fighting is a lot like Chris Byrd, would have done well against a slugger like Samuel Peter, as he would have used his long reach and boxing ability to keep Peter from landing his big shots.

Against Vitali, however, Gomez’s 6’3″ size won’t enable him to fight from the outside as he normally likes, and he’ll be in the position of having to catch a lot of shots either with his gloves or his head. Most likely, he’ll get hit a lot and in the absence of an injury on Vitali’s part, Gomez will probably get knocked out or lose by decision. Vitali may not fight him, who knows? Gomez isn’t a big name in boxing, and other than fans in Germany, few people have heard of him as a fighter. It’s not a fight that Vitali would be able to sell tickets for or use as a potential PPV bout, because of Gomez’s largely unknown status.

Gomez is well acquainted with the Klitschko brothers, having beaten Wladimir in the amateur ranks years ago and also fighting for the same promotional company as the brothers – Universum. However, he’s still not an appealing fighter for which Vitali might want to face. Gomez, a southpaw, is a well schooled defense fighter, who uses his jab and fast combinations to defeat his opponents. He’s got a good left hand, but he gets most of his knockouts through an accumulation of blows rather than a single shot. He’s tricky, smart and possibly a fighter that would give Vitali a lot of trouble if he can get him frustrated and tired.

In a statement to Vitali earlier today, Gomez has this to say, “I understand that you prefer to step in the ring with guys who cannot fight (meaning Samuel Peter). But I am your official challenger. You can’t run away forever. You know that I am the man who will beat you. You know how good I am!”