Saul Alvarez to fight Alfonso Gomez on September 17th

By Boxing News - 07/18/2011 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: World Boxing Council (WBC) junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (37-0-1, 27 KO’s) has decided to take it easy for his 2nd title defense on September 17th and will be taking on welterweight Alfonso Gomez (23-4-2, 12 KO’s) in what should be an easy little fight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

It’s too bad that Alvarez has decided to take it light for this defense, because there was a lot of good opponents he could have fought like Vanes Martirosyan, Alfredo Angulo, or Paul Williams. Gomez isn’t even a junior middleweight. That’s what makes this an even worse title defense. Gomez is someone that has with the likes of Jesus Soto Karass. It’s a bad a choice.

Alvarez recently beat Ryan Rhodes by a 12th round knockout in his last fight. Alvarez took a lot of flack for that fight, because boxing fans saw it as him taking an easy option. However, at least Rhodes was ranked number #3 by the WBC. Gomez isn’t even ranked by the WBC in the junior middleweight division.

Gomez was destroyed by Miguel Cotto in a 5th round knockout in 2008. That was Gomez’s biggest fight of his career other than his win over Arturo Gatti in 2007. That was at the end of Gatti’s career, which takes away from the win in a big way. Gomez’s other important fights have come against Ben Tackie, Martin Conception, Carson Jones, Jesse Feliciano, Jesse Brinkley, Patrick Thompson, Peter Manfredo Jr, Ahmad Kaddour, and Jose Luis Castillo. In the case of Castillo, he wasn’t the same fighter he was early in his career when Gomez fought him.

Gomez is a decent B level fighter but he’s going to be in away over his head against Alvarez. This is going to be a major slaughter. It will be lucky if it goes past the 4th round. I think Alvarez is better than Cotto and Cotto was able to easily beat Gomez. The problem with Gomez is that he’s not a big puncher and isn’t very fast. He’s kind of a plodder that likes to slug it out. He’s going to be at the mercy of Alvarez’s heavy shots on September 17th.



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