Following my fight against Carson, injuries and a
project up in Thailand kept me away from the ring for more than 7
months. Its extremely unfit for a boxer to get in the ring with so
much time in between. And for the past few years, for one reason or the
other, that has been my case. Therefore, when TOC (Tournament of
Contenders) offered me to fight in a Special series that was going to
be aired on ESPN I accepted. I became one of the 8 elite fighters who
were going over sees to Newcastle, England to a accept the challenge
for the Sugar Ray Leonard Cup. The 8 Contender 1 and Contender 2
fighters were pined up against UKs ex-World Champions and up &
coming prospects in their home turf in the first ever "Contender
Challenge: USA vs UK."
The fighter that I had to fight was
Martin Concepcion, an ex National Amateur boxer who held many titles in
his homeland, and someone who as a pro, had an 80% KO rate for his
victories. Our records had similarities in wins and defeats but he was
the bigger, stronger guy and I was the most experience.
During
the fight I dominated him from the beginning. I had seen his tapes
prior to the fight and predicted an early KO victory, but after the
first few rounds, It was evident that he had studied me and trained for
me. He kept my at bay with his jab and avoided a left hook to the body
at all costs. Although I was winning comfortably, I was still searching
for the KO, because I knew that in impressive win over Martin was going
to get me to the big fights I had been dreaming of since childhood.
Aside from that, I had promised myself that I was going to replace the
good performances of 2006 with amazing extra ordinary ones for 2007.
Through
out the fight, from round 1 and up, I kept a professional game plan. I
listened to my corners instructions, and even thought I felt boring
in the ring (being used to the full force wars in the past) I kept my
game plan. I hurt Conception more than twice in the fight, and dropped
him in the third round with a left hook, but my respect for his KO
power kept my at bay until I saw the opportunity in the seventh round.
An extremely painful uppercut had him walk away from the fight and
after a devastating left hook from me, the referee stepped in to
protect the hometown boy and once again I received the KO victory.
The
day after the fight I got biggest news an upcoming boxer can get.to
fight a huge named fighter and prove once and for all who Alfonso Gomez
is and what he can do. My next opponent is the legendary, future hall
of fame, human fighting machine, balls made out of steel, most exciting
fighter in the World: Arturo Thunder Gatti.
