Las Vegas Boxing Action: Margarito Rubs Gomez Out With A Vengeance

Manuel “Shotgun” Gomez started his professional boxing life eighteen years ago as a super featherweight and struggled through eight losses before meeting Shane Mosley for the IBF Lightweight crown in 1997, getting stopped in the eleventh by a prime “Sugar” Shane. Since then Gomez had lost only one of fourteen contests but on a diet of solid but unspectacular competition. Tonight in Las Vegas, WBO Welterweight Champion Antonio Margarito brutally showed Gomez the error of his ways, mugging the popular Nuevo Laredo, TX slugger in a sheer street fight and crushing the challenger within the very first round. It was classic Margarito as the much taller Tijuana terror unleashed a torrent of leather from the bell, led by a withering right hand that reduced the championship aspirations of the shorter Gomez into basic instinctive survival mode. As the barrage went on, Gomez was no longer able to defend himself from the willful Margarito which inspired referee Richard Steele to stop the bout at just 2:19 of the first round. After the bout, Bob Arum, head of Top Rank and promoter of Margarito, now 33-4 (24), expressed an interest in setting up the WBO Champion to face the winner of the upcoming Floyd Mayweather – Zab Judah IBF Welter title contest in July.