Alfonso Gomez Discusses Loss to Canelo Alvarez, Mayweather vs Ortiz (Video)

by Scott Christ on Sep 21, 2011 3:07 AM EDT in Boxing Interviews & Quotes

Our friends at FightHubTV.com caught up with Alfonso Gomez following his stoppage loss to Saul "Canelo" Alvarez last Saturday night. Alvarez and Gomez main evented in Los Angeles and were the main co-feature bout via satellite on the Mayweather vs Ortiz pay-per-view. Most felt that referee Wayne Hedgpeth stopped the fight too early in the fifth round, and Gomez of course felt the same:

On the stoppage: "[Alvarez] rocked me and I went to the ropes, trying to protect myself, trying to catch my balance. And I guess he threw two punches afterward and they stopped it right away. It was insane. No (he didn't hurt me), I was blocking them. I think I blocked them pretty well. The ref didn't even give me a chance to, like, for him to throw two punches and for me to clinch him, or if he did hurt me for him to knock me down at least. He just stopped it."

Scott's Take: On the topic of referee Wayne Hedgpeth, he might not be the best-known referee, but he's been around and has worked some world title fights before. He had just done the Juan Carlos Salgado vs Argenis Mendez fight the week before (September 10), and notably was the referee for the 2010 fight between Yonnhy Perez and Abner Mares. He's no novice, but he did make the stoppage call very quickly here. Gomez seems to believe that the referee was looking for any reason to stop the fight in Alvarez's favor, and I have to agree that it was a very early stoppage, with no disrespect meant to Canelo Alvarez.

On what's next: "I wanna fight before the year ends. I wanna get back to welterweight and continue my road to a world championship. I really wanna hold that belt. I'm 30 years old, so I still have gas in the tank."

On the fan turnout: "It was crazy, because I got fans from Guadalajara, even Europe, you know, from France that came over to support me. So I feel real grateful for them doing that, and also I feel blessed because I've shown in the ring and outside the ring what kind of character I am, what kind of person I am, and I think that brings the fans out to watch me. So thank you very much to all the fans who came over, and I'm sorry I couldn't do more. But it was out of my hands. Because it was in the referee's hands."

On Mayweather vs Ortiz: "I think Ortiz was a little desperate at Mayweather's defense, and he headbutted him purposely. And Mayweather tried to get back at him -- a little more legal way than Ortiz tried. It's shameful. I'm a fighter and I wouldn't do that, I'm more respectful to the game and to the opponent. But like I said, in love and war everything's valid, especially when Joe Cortez, the referee, and everybody just admitted that it was OK."

On being in Ortiz's shoes: "I wouldn't (hug Mayweather after the fight). I wouldn't be happy about it. And I wouldn't be happy with myself, because I would feel like I got bullied, in a way. And I got played."

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2 punches, maybe not.

First off, I’m a fan of Gomez, like his attitude, like his style but I don’t think he has either watched the fight or wants to accept what really happened.
There were at least 7 unanswered hard shots that Alvarez threw before the ref stopped it.
He had time (though not much) to either clinch, retreat or take a knee. Without any of those defensive tactics the Ref was justified (though not appreciated) for stopping the fight.

I’m actually happy Gomez didn’t take more of a beat-down, so he can go on and fight someone in his own weight class.

As for Alvarez, as Scott and many others have prolly said already, he needs to fight someone who is a NATURAL 154 lb fighter and in the top 10 before he gets me to be part of his hype machine.

Cheers.

by atonyman on Sep 21, 2011 3:37 PM EDT reply actions