Tweet
La debacle de Wilfredo Gómez
A day like today, 30 years ago, Puerto Rico felt firsthand the loss to Salvador Sanchez
.
Por Jorge L. Pérez / jperez@elnuevodia.com
It is said that in countries like Argentina or Spain, the streets empty completely when their national football teams are playing a big game.
And if in case a loss occurs ... the environment becomes mournful, almost as if it had been a national disgrace.
In Puerto Rico, the closest equivalent of this occurred late in the evening of August 21, 1981, the day that Wilfredo Gomez, a fighter many considered invincible, suffered the first defeat of his career.
But it was not only to lose ... but the manner and circumstances in which that loss occurred, occurred at the Sports Pavilion at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
The fight, dubbed 'The Battle of the Little Giants' by the magic promotional promoter Don King, was, above all, a war between Mexico and Puerto Rico and the island was supposed to be victorious.
At that time, Gomez was considered one of the best fighters in the world, surpassed only in the mind of the average fan, by figures such as Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns.
And with good reason too well: the Puerto Rican, 24 years of age, had a record of 32-0-1 with 32 knockouts and defenses of the scepter had featherweight (122 pounds) World Boxing Council (WBC).
One of them was in the middle to Carlos Zarate, the portentous bantamweight champion who had gained weight to challenge Puerto Rican in 1978, and ended up getting a memorable knockout in five rounds.
On the other hand, Sanchez, 22, was considered a solid 126-pound champion, thanks to its record with 30 knockouts 1.1.40, but three of the five defenses owners had reached the maximum distance, which was then 15 rounds, and had often encountered problems to succeed.
There were even those who felt that the Panamanian Eusebio Pedroza, who won the World Boxing Association (WBA), was the true dominant figure in the category.
Therefore, it was not surprising that the stakes were 2 to 1 in favor of Puerto Rican who, as recalled, spent the entire promotional period prior to the meeting not only predicting that Sanchez would win, but it would knock ... and very early indeed.
Two quotations escaped his lips: in one, boasting of his singular courage, said: "Standing or dead, but never on its knees".
In the other, he recommended that Sanchez took a photo to have evidence of how he looked before he did porridge in the ring. "Not in your house you will recognize," he said.
At the same time, Gomez was Don Juan's life and his gallant bearing of itself caused the Don King called him the 'Clark Gable Puerto Rican. "
Anyway, such was the conviction of the superiority of the Puerto Rican, the journalist Chu Garcia, who covered the fight to El Nuevo Dia, came to expect from Gomez predicted that one of the easiest fights of his career, and this despite he had obtained the premise that Gomez had been through much of the previous day in the sauna trying to lose four pounds overweight, which García, quite logically, considered an unforgivable act of indiscipline on the part of a fighter even came up from the 122 pounds.
In fact, it was said that the way to the ring on fight night, Wilfredo paused a moment before the door of the clubhouse Salvador, hit her and yelled the same thing: do not forget to take the photo.
Inside the coliseum that was the Sports Pavilion, burned a party atmosphere and tension almost unbearable squeal majority Mexican public contempt for the arrival of Wilfredo welcomed to the ring, accompanied by live music and Roberto Roena Apollo Sound, who sang a song whose chorus saying, 'He Wilfredo, is shooting to kill ...'.
Sanchez then made entry, accompanied in turn by a mariachi.
Once they were in the ring, some journalists say after he noted a big difference to the mood of the two fighters.
In a statement, Chon Romero, a veteran chronicler of the New York magazine boxing gloves and commentator for the Spanish broadcast on HBO, said that while Sanchez was maintained at all times calm and equable in the ring, Wilfredo fully committed himself to frenzy the moment and snatched up and tried to play the trombone in one of the musicians of the Apollo Sound.
The beginning of the fight continued this pattern: Wilfredo went on the attack, while Sanchez moved quietly around the ring. In the middle of the assault, however, Sanchez, who had his back to the ropes, hit a fierce right hand that sent him to the canvas.
Gomez got up, but was still stunned, and spent the rest of the episode stumbled on the ring, receiving and holding strong combinations in a desperate attempt to survive.
Even though he had the talent and determination to respond in the following rounds, and even win some of them due to the beating of the first assault had been inflating a huge swelling that barely allowed him to see the right eye and was perhaps due to the concern of running out of sight, or the referee Carlos Padilla filipino stop the fight, Gomez, after registering at their best assault seventh, relaunched wildly looking for the knockout.
Then he repeated the story of the first: Sanchez shook him with a right when it was on the ropes, Gomez nearly got caught between the ropes and fell to the canvas, where, for a moment was kneeling.
Despite the uproar that was formed around the ring above, Sanchez and smiled ... and even opened his mouth, demonstrating the extraordinary physical condition that would earn him the nickname Mr. Lung, and was limited to answering questions from journalists saying that nothing had surprised the outcome of the meeting.
But it was a poignant phrase: "I did not stop him in the first assault. I just wanted to beat him up. " Juan Jose Torres Landa, one of his handlers, was perhaps the last word: "Gomez talked a lot and prepared little."
Gomez cried out for revenge. However, Sanchez was killed in an accident on August 12, 1982, almost exactly a year later when he crashed his Porsche into a white cargo truck in Mexico.
Ironically, it seems, the Porsche he was given by someone who made much money betting on him in his victory over Wilfredo Gomez, the biggest of his career.
Comment