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By Thomas Gerbasi - Alfonso Gomez laughs when you ask him if it feels like ten years since he was in the nation’s living room as a cast member on the first season of NBC’s The Contender.
“It doesn’t, but it’s scary once you say it because it has been ten years, and in one blink of an eye it will be another ten years, like ‘oh no.’”
One of the most affable fighters in boxing today, Gomez has never lost his appeal as a blue-collar, regular guy who showed up to fight when the bell rang and then went back home to his family when it was all over. And while he’s right when he says that ten years can disappear in an instant, at 33, he’s still here in the fight game mix, something not many of his peers from the show can say.
In fact, if you’re talking fighters with relevance today, it’s just Gomez, Sergio Mora, and Ishe Smith from the cast of 16.
“Sergio, myself and Ishe Smith, we’re the last of the Mohicans,” said Gomez. “We’re the last ones standing and still going strong. And that’s pretty cool.”
Of that trio, Gomez is the only one without a world title, Mora briefly holding the junior middleweight crown in 2008, and Smith doing the same thing last year. Gomez saw what Smith did against the odds in 2013, and it stuck with him and made him even more intent to one day strap that championship belt around his waist.
“Definitely,” he said. “I still feel that I’m very capable of winning a world title.” [Click Here To Read More]
“It doesn’t, but it’s scary once you say it because it has been ten years, and in one blink of an eye it will be another ten years, like ‘oh no.’”
One of the most affable fighters in boxing today, Gomez has never lost his appeal as a blue-collar, regular guy who showed up to fight when the bell rang and then went back home to his family when it was all over. And while he’s right when he says that ten years can disappear in an instant, at 33, he’s still here in the fight game mix, something not many of his peers from the show can say.
In fact, if you’re talking fighters with relevance today, it’s just Gomez, Sergio Mora, and Ishe Smith from the cast of 16.
“Sergio, myself and Ishe Smith, we’re the last of the Mohicans,” said Gomez. “We’re the last ones standing and still going strong. And that’s pretty cool.”
Of that trio, Gomez is the only one without a world title, Mora briefly holding the junior middleweight crown in 2008, and Smith doing the same thing last year. Gomez saw what Smith did against the odds in 2013, and it stuck with him and made him even more intent to one day strap that championship belt around his waist.
“Definitely,” he said. “I still feel that I’m very capable of winning a world title.” [Click Here To Read More]
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