After the mouth dropping win I had against Gatti, I thought people were going to start believing more in my skills.  Some did, but the majority gave the excuse that Gatti was a shot fighter and that if he was on his prime he would of KO'd me.  I have to disagree with the non-boxing experts and I have to agree with Emmanuel Steward (one of the most recognized and respected boxing trainers and analyst in the World) when he said "Alfonso could of beaten Gatti, when Arturo was on his prime."

Again, I took the excuses and critizisim as motivation to keep winning.  I didn't get a week of rest when I was already scheduled to fight what was now the toughest figher I had ever faced in the name of Ben Tackie.  He was a title challenger a couple times, never been dropped, and was looking for the right "marshmellow" to burn in order to get away from the "gate keeper" status.   I had seen his previous fight against an undefeted young mexican olympian, and he almost had the vicotry.  Ben didn't look as well conditioned as other fights, which only told me that he would be tougher in my fight.

I took that into consideration during my training camp.  This training camp wasn't as intence as the Gatti one for a few reason.  One, camps were almost back to back.  Two, I nearly broke my ankle during one of my joggs which prohibited me from running at all until 10 days before the fight.  Three, my heart and my determination where 100% in tune, however, my body was exhausted from the grueling training I did for the Gatti fight and didn't want to cooparate.  Nevertheless, we took those obstacles and switched it up to my benefit.  Instead of running, i tried swimming or just walking on the step master.  Being so exhausted I only sparred and spared and sparred, and avoided too much and bags.   And primarily, since I couldn't move my leg to box or counter attack, I worked a lot on standing still to bob and weave on one spot.

Coming into the fight a lot of people didn't knwo what to expect.  We're we going to see the flat un-inspired Gomez they saw against Feliciano?  Or Where they going to see the superman they saw against Gatti?  Was there really a superman, or was Gatti to shot to make a flat un-inspired Gomez look like superman?  Too many questions!  Only one way to answer them.

Up in the ring I could see Ben's determanation.  From the moment he got on it, he did't take his eyes off me like saying "I'm going to tenderize you throughout the whole fight, then I'm going to eat you for dinner!"   And just as I though we would do, after the initial bell, he came right at me in 3rd gear.  I had no choice but to put mine on fourth!  I threw a lot of jabs to keep him at bay and whenever I saw the chance I'd tag him with the right or with body punches.  The plan was going pefrect, until in the second round I felt a sharp pain in my hand after I caught him with an uppercut.  I thought I just hurted, so I tried it again and the pain was worse.  At that moment, I thought I had broken it, because the pain was different than I had experienced before.

I came back to my corner and informed my dad that I had broken it.  He tried to grab it to see but the pain was too much so I told him to leave it and not say anything.  I felt that Ben was putting pressure at a 70% in order to save up energy and go at 100% in the later rounds.  Therefore, I did't want anyone to find out about the hand because if Ben did, I thought he'd up the pressure which is something I didn't want.

And so the fight continued.  I jabbed, jabberd, jabbed, jabberd all night long.  Broken hand, pain, 100 punches per round, Ben on my face.  It was a looooooong night.  Ben caught me a lot of time, bugt he missed most.  In this fight I showed the world a better Gomez.  I moved my head, I blociked punches, I conter punched with perfection, my stamina was superb, and all in all, it was one of my berst performances, because with all the obstacles that were placed in my path as I headed for the fight, I jumped them and they only made me stronger.

After this victory, World Champions are mentioning my name as possilbe opponent.  Now, every boxing fan knows my name.  My next fight will be against a top contender.  What was once a dream, now is a reality, and everyday it gets more real.