Alfonso Gomez

Infobox Boxer
name = Alfonso Gomez
realname = Alfonso Gomez
birth_date = birth date and age|1980|10|28
birth_place = Guadalajara, Mexico
nationality = Mexican
height = height|ft=5|in=9
weight = Welterweight
style = Orthodox
total = 24
wins = 18
KO = 8
losses = 4
draws = 2

Alfonso Gomez (Alfonso Salvador Gómez Becerra) (born October 28, 1980) is a professional boxer and competitor on reality TV show The Contender, where he ended up ranked third out of sixteen fighters.

Personal life

Gomez was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, but his parents subsequently moved to the city of Napa, California where he graduated in 1998 from Napa High and (later) Tustin, California, partly so as to enable Alfonso to go to college and continue boxing. He had started boxing at age 10, and had an amateur record of 80 wins and 10 losses. He was managed along the way by his father, an ex-boxer himself. He has two brothers.

Boxing career

He fought and lost to Ishe Smith in 2001 and he would later become the roommate of Smith on reality TV show The Contender. On the show, he was placed on the West Coast team (as was Ishe) and challenged the high-ranked Peter Manfredo in the first fight. He beat the then undefeated Rhode Islander in a shock fight, although that wasn't the end of Peter.

In the quarterfinals, he fought Ahmed Khaddour (who had been bought back in to replace Juan de la Rosa) and beat him easily. The Semi Final round saw him up against Manfredo (who had been bought back in to replace Jeff Fraza) again, a fight Manfredo was very keen on. This time round however, the man from Guadalajara lost. He may take some consolation from having beaten Brinkley in the 3rd Place Fight, which guaranteed him a nice packet of prize money—and the whole experience catapulted him to a world ranking of 21 out of 861. However, he has never fought outside of four southwestern states: Nevada, Colorado, Texas, California.

Since the end of the Contender series, Gomez has been undefeated through six fights (including one on , as noted below). He defeated Jesse Brinkley, also of Contender fame, by unanimous decision on May 24, 2005. He fought Luciano Perez on October 15, 2005 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and won by TKO. He also fought Jesse Feliciano to a draw on May 5, 2006 at the Aladdin Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Alfonso Gomez was a part of the Contender Challenge: UK vs USA, where he was pitted against Martin Concepcion on March 30, 2007. Alfonso won due to TKO from an uppercut, late in the 7th round.

Most recently, Gomez defeated Arturo Gatti on July 14, 2007 via 7th round TKO, then just three months later he outpointed Ben Tackie in a unanimous decision in Carson, California on October 16, 2007.

Gomez has always expressed a desire to become World Champion. He is still managed and coached by his father, Alfonso Gómez, Sr.

Gomez lost his last fight against Miguel Cotto by TKO on April 12, 2008 after the ring-side doctor declared him unable to continue after receiving several blows from Cotto.

External links

* [http://www.alfonsosgomez.com Official Site]
* [http://boxing.about.com/od/records/a/gomez.htm Alfonso Gomez Fight-by-Fight Career Record]
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