By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya will be taking a big risk with his unbeaten fighter #8 IBF light welterweight contender Frankie Gomez (18-0, 13 KOs) in matching him against 34-year-old former two division world champion Humberto Soto (65-8-2, 35 KOs) on May 9th on the undercard of the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. James Kirkland fight at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas.
The fights, Canelo-Kirkland and Gomez-Soto, will be televised on HBO.
#8 IBF Gomez hasn’t fought anyone near the same class as Soto before in his career. The closest thing that Gomez has gotten to fighting someone like Soto is his recent fight against Vernon Paris, who Gomez defeated by a lopsided 10 round decision last year in July.
That was the last time that the 23-year-old Gomez fought, and the scores fight were much more lopsided than they should have been. Gomez was hit a lot in that fight, and he won mostly based on his youth, punch resistance and harder shots. It wasn’t pretty though. He took a lot of head shots in the process of winning.
Soto, #5 IBF, #6 WBC, #7 WBO, has done a good job of coming back from a 5th round knockout loss to Lucas Matthysse in June of 2012. Soto was not competitive in the least against Matthysse, as he was knocked down in the 5th and halted. Matthysse made a slightly flabby looking Soto look like an old man in that fight, an old man out of his natural weight class. However, Soto has come back from that loss to win his last seven fights, and he’s looked very good.
Soto is now punching with more power, and he’s a lot more aggressive than he was in his fight against Matthysse. In Soto’s last fight he defeated John Molina Jr. by a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision last year in September. Soto did a better job of beating Molina Jr than Adrien Broner recently did in his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision win.
The question about the Soto-Gomez fight is whether Gomez can stand up to Soto’s ring skills, and his huge advantage in experience. Soto is so much more experienced than Gomez that you can’t even compare the two.
The only thing that Gomez has going for him is he’s a big a light welterweight who looks like a junior middleweight after he rehydrates for his fights. You can make an argument that the 5’8” Gomez should really be fighting in the welterweight division right now, because he’s a very big fighter for 140.
He’s like the light welterweight division’s version of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez with his size, punching power, and the way he walks down his opponents. Gomez’s style of fighting leads to him getting a lot, though. I’m not sure that’s going to be a good thing for him against a fighter as good and as skilled as Soto. You don’t want Soto to be nailing you with flush shots all night long if you’re Gomez.
I think we may end up seeing Gomez changing his fighting style for the Soto bout, because if he tries to walk Soto down, he’s going to end up in a real war, and it might not go his way.
I think there’s a very good chance that the Soto vs. Gomez fight winds up stealing the show on May 9th. I see it as a much better fight than the mismatch between a rusty and out of shape Kirkland against the 24-year-old Canelo. Soto is an excellent fighter facing a young lion in Gomez. The thing with Gomez is he’s a flawed fighter and not in the same class as Matthysse. If he’s not as good as Matthysse, then Soto has a real good chance of beating Gomez in this fight.
Comments are closed.