Shopworn Gomez in torrid slugfest by Terry Dooley Jun 26th 2007

Michael Gomez continued on the comeback trail yesterday as he overcame Youseff Al Hamidi in three Wild West style rounds. Despite suffering cuts over both eyes plus taking a pummelling in a torrid first round, Gomez bounced back to break Hamidi down with left hooks to the body in the third. Overall it was a thrilling microcosm of a bill that surely whetted the Wigan fans appetites ahead of a Frank Maloney boxing bill in the same venue this on July 6th. The main event, though, gained its excitement partially from the fact that Gomez looks completely unequipped to make inroads into the upper-echelons of the domestic scene. BBN's drive to Wigan had underlined that, as far as the elements went, it was shaping up to be a tempestuous few days. Rain followed sun followed rain as we made our way to the Robin Park Arena for the fights. As Gomez made his entrance to the ring he was greeted by a downfall of thunderous applause from a crowd whipped-up by a series of dramatic under-card fights. Gomez, 9st 6lb, came out slowly allowing Youseff, 9st 4-½ lb, to step to the side before clipping Gomez with the first of a legion of left hook counters. A double-jab stung bopped the face of Gomez before yet another left hook began the bloodletting from Gomez's eyes. As the blood flowed from his right eye in this first round Gomez tried to force the work needed to take the legs away from Hamidi only to take a right hand from his retreating opponent. It was a tough first round for Gomez, every shot he took was echoed by his knees, his right eye was cut and he struggled to get-off a decent shot let alone come close to winning the round. However during the second round Youseff became a Midas in reverse – we are not just talking about how he went from moving to running either – as he turned a strong first round into a less strong second. Early in the round Hamidi continued to tune-up Gomez with little counter shots only to find that a left hook to the body from Gomez took most of the wind from his sails.  By now Gomez was cut over both eyes, these days his skin seems to tear as easily as wet tissue, yet it was Hamidi looking to duck out of the fight as he retreated then spat his gumshield out. A burst of hooks to the body – right, left, right – sent Youseff into Gomez's corner where the accumulation of blows, a left hook to the body in particular, plus the liberal dousing of water in the corner, put him over. A count was administered over the fallen Youseff who got-up only to be promptly bundled over again, this time it was ruled a slip.  As the round ended Gomez had overcome the crisis of round one. Body shots had worked well for Gomez in making Hamidi a negative shell of the elusive yet confident fighter we saw in the early minutes. Youseff did get off a good right hook as the third round began only for his legs to betray him a little as another body shot went in. Staggering about like a drunken sailor Hamidi was clearly giving out distress signals.  Early on Youseff had moved, as the hooks went in he had flipped to a runner and his corner put him out of his misery by throwing in a towel surrender that was accepted by all. The end came at 1:24 of the third round. So what, on the evidence of the first two fights, can be said of the Gomez comeback express.  Well it is certainly creaking in the right direction with two stoppage wins out of two fights. Unfortunately if this direction is marked ‘The higher-end of the UK Top Ten' Gomez is headed straight for a brutal defeat.  His defence is non-existent by and large. The façade of prime head movement is simply that. They say they do not come back and this truism is more applicable to head movement than anything else. The fire still remains – Gomez screamed at the crowd when the end came – only it now burns erratically and far too slightly. Gomez – once the best super-feather in the country – is no longer the force he was.  His comeback will be well managed by Steve Woods, who is adroit enough to know where Gomez can go. If the fighter wants the to reclaim the thrill that has gone it is his prerogative to do so.  However both Daniel Thorpe and, now, Hamidi have shown that although the road will be exciting it is heading only for a painful defeat for Gomez. A rematch with Alex Arthur would be a cruel folly so it is hard to see what else Gomez can achieve. On the other hand no one doubts his desire to win things again, unfortunately his biggest critic on this road back may prove to be his own body, skin and defence. The show had started promisingly with the professional debut of Oldham's John Kays.  Kays, 9st 4lb, marked himself out as a decent fighter to watch as he defeated Peter Buckley, 10st 5lb, on points over six times two-minute rounds. Due to the nature of fights against Buckley it was hard to gauge the potential of John yet he showed the imagination to try different things. A left hook off the jab in round one in particular. By the third the eager Kays was smothering his own work somewhat, when he stepped back in round four he landed an unusual jab-right hook to the body combination. In the final round John seemed comfortable at range before closing out the fight with a lovely stiff jab to the face of Peter. John stepped in with it and pushed Buckley's head back a little. BBN scored the fight 60-54 for Kay's and referee Phil Edwards had it by the same margin. Next up came four round three-minute rounds of quality boxing, once he settled down, from VIP new boy Gary Sykes.  Sykes, 9st 8-½ lb, beat Rom Krauklis, 9st 7-¼ lb, in convincing fashion. Early-doors Sykes rushed in behind his shots, this resulted in a mauling first round before things settled in the second. In this round Sykes scored with a right and left hook to the body before switching his attack to the head with a one-two, a left hook to the body followed. In the third a series of shots – a right hand plus some jabs – brought a smear of blood to the nose of Rom. By the final round Sykes was in his groove – a jab followed by a burst of hooks to the body, left and right, went in. Stylistically Sykes was making the mistake of leaping in with his one-two as opposed to sliding into range. Overall, though, it was an all-action fight from Sykes, his leaping in could cause him problems with right hands, he took a few in this fight, but overall he was well-worth the 40-36 score turned in by referee Steve Gray. BBN scored it by the same margin. Next-up was the fight considered by many to be fight of the day – well at least until Sean Crompton then Gomez turned-up without their defences – as Johnny Enigma was stopped by Tony Randell at the end of a brutal fifth round.  Enigma, 11st 4lb, came-out strong for the first round of this six time two-minute rounds bout only to find that he left Randell, 11st 10-¼ lb, enough range to get his wide shots off. The last time BBN had seen Randell he had been completely negated by Brian Rose as Rose had stayed inside the arc of Tony's shots and scored with his own hooks. This time Randell found that Enigma presented a straightforward target and as the first round wore-on it became clear that someone would lose steam as the fight, plus the heavy blows, continued. Johnny came out throwing body shots only for Randell to score with his own left hook to the ribs of Enigma. Randell was not shy after this initial introduction; he threw two more left hooks, body then head, only to see them both miss.  Enigma pressed throughout the remainder of the round, plus landed enough left hooks to win it, yet he was not as forceful as Rose had been against Randell. Despite winning the first Enigma was the fighter looking uncomfortable with the pace of the bout. A right hand from Randell turned Enigma early in the second round only for Johnny, as he had in the first, to launch a monumental effort to stake his claim on the round. Enigma threw three solid hooks too the body only to see Randell land his own, harder, left too the body in return. Tony reversed the classical one-two by throwing a right hand followed by a jab at the round's end yet it seemed that Enigma had stayed clam enough, plus punched cleanly enough, to win the round. The fight turned in the third as Randell upped the already brisk and busy pace. As they wrestled their way out of a clinch Randell clipped Enigma with a winging right hand then powered in a stiff-armed jab. Randell was now backing Enigma off; this allowed Tony to step in behind big, intimidating, winged shots.  It was an exciting fight, Enigma fans at ringside were expressing admiration for the journeyman Randell who proved himself deserving of this appreciation by driving Enigma back with right and left hooks to the body in round four. Enigma was not getting off at this point, he was also taking a lot of shots when he did try and fight back, this left Randell free to land a series of shots during the round; at one point Randell tried to shove Phil Edwards to one side so he could get too the fading Enigma. They were split on the referee's card at two rounds apiece by the time the fifth round began. Randell sidestepped an Enigma punch then landed his own stiff jab. Enigma now had a badly bloodied nose to contend with, a problem that was not aided by a right uppercut and left hook from Randell.  To his credit Enigma dug in. Right at the end of the round Johnny was stiffened on the inside as a left hook landed only for him to land a big shot on the temple of Randell, sensing that he may have turned the tide back to his shores Enigma prepared to follow-on from this shot only for Randell to hammer him while his guard was open. A final big left hook took everything out of Enigma; he staggered back on his legs with nothing left to prompt a very late but very just stoppage at 1:59 of the round.  Tony had landed a big left hook on the open Enigma then followed with three calculated and brutal shots before a final, heavy, left hook busted Enigma up some more and sent the fight, plus blood, flying from him. Randell deserved the win, the crowd had seen a real fight with a just outcome, and they applauded long and hard for both fighters before wishing Tony well as he left the ring.  Unfortunately the valour of Randell and Enigma was missing in the next fight as Brian Rose powered aside the disappointing Justin Barnes. Rose, 11st 3-¼ lb, deserved better from his opponent as Barnes, 11st 6-¼ lb, gave clear surrender signals by twice taking a knee after innocuous blows. Some serious blows had gone in early from the eager Rose as he punished Barnes with the jab in round one before bringing in left hooks to the body. In the second Brian continued to go about his work only to see Barnes take a knee not once but twice – the second time from a well picked, but light, left hook to the body - leaving referee Steve Gray no choice but to wave off the bout at 1:16 of the round. Barnes cited an injured hand as the reason for his meek capitulation yet two facts seem to dispute this.  Firstly: in the second round he landed his best shot – a left hook – only for Rose to land a, better, left hook to the body. Barnes collapsed like a limpid flan after this lack of success.  Secondly: Barnes used his injured hands, both of them, to operate a DVD camcorder during the course of a later bout between his friend Ronnie Daniels and Alex Matvienko.  So far the action had been incessant, to that end a lull in the action was required so we could all catch our breath. This lull was provided by Chris Johnson's tepid four-round win over David Kirk. Johnson, 10st 13-¾ lb, won the four times two minute round contest 40-37 on the scorecard of Phil Edwards whilst picking-up a 39-37 win on the BBN card. Kirk took a quiet first purely on blows landed before Johnson swept the next three rounds with the odd bursts of jabs and one-twos. By the third very little was happening as the styles failed to gel.  Kirk looked a bit like 1980's action-man Michael Biehn (he of ‘The Terminator' and ‘Timebomb' fame) yet there was precious little action in this bout.  This dip in the quality of the action, if not the boxing, was arrested in the next fight as Sean Crompton – fighting only eight days after his debut – scored a Keystone Cops like third-round stoppage over Irfan Malik. Crompton, 11st 12lb, came out with absolutely no defence as he threw long right hands at the retreating Malik, 11st 12-¼ lb, who, to his credit, soon figured out that Crompton was not straightening the right with a left hook and took advantage. Irfan slipped over in the first as the strong Crompton crowded him. Sean was still wild though, and, as Sean again dropped his guard to fire a right hand, Malik stepped in with his own, shorter, right hand and floored the local favourite. Crompton was dazed when he got up yet gritted his teeth despite Malik landing a follow-up left hook and right hand. A jab from Irfan went in also to steady Crompton at the end of a poor round for him stylistically. Crompton was reddened around the left cheek in the second round as Malik continued to embarrass him by landing right hands on the counter. Crompton did counter a jab with his own left hook then, seeing it was successful, repeated the ploy before sending Malik down with a right hand along the ropes. Upon rising Malik tried to cover-up in the face of a wild assault by Sean. Crompton, again, left himself wide-open to the right hand of Malik as both men landed the blow simultaneously before a slip sent Malik down for an unfair count. Sean won this round 10-7, BBN noted that if both men continued the third in this vein the fight would be over, failing this, if it went the six-round distance, BBN would need a calculator to tot up its card. Sean went kamikaze again to open the third round, Malik had roughly two-days to counter the shots and duly did so. Undaunted by the rights coming his way Sean hit Malik with two big right hands to send the opposing fighter careening into the red corner of Sean. Once there Malik got himself in a tangle trying to hold and two more right hands, really clubbing shots, sent him violently to the canvas with a jagged cut running down his nose. Wisely referee Steve Gray waved the fight off at 0:36 of the round. Crompton had failed to settle throughout the bout, fighting like a rabid Wyatt Earp will see him win at this stage yet if he continues it he will have problems in the future. Our final undercard bout saw Alex Matvienko box his way to a points victory over Ronnie Daniels. Alex, 11st 5-¼ lb, jabbed Daniels, 11st 9-¾ lb, onto his back-foot early before dropping in body shots under the high guard of the Dutchman, who has a guard more suited to Muay Thai. Daniels served slight evidence that better was to come as he dodged and rolled in the second round as Alex jabbed at him. Matvienko overcame this by stepping to the side then powering home a left hook to the body followed by a right uppercut to the chin. Ronnie did little in this round so it came as no surprise that he chose to forgo his seat at the end of the stanza. More surprisingly was his Walter Raleigh moment as he held the ropes open for a scantily clad ring-card girl. Daniels also used his vantage point to get a good view of the girl. He is Dutch after all. By the third and fourth Daniels was only able to clown his way through the fight in a manner reminiscent of Juan Sebastian Lujan in his fight with Jamie Moore. Matvienko took the bait briefly by dropping his hands; this allowed Daniels to pop off a few shots before Alex closed-out the fight in a more business-like manner in rounds five and six. Alex was landing right hands to the body then stepping in with his jabs before going back down below again. It was sensible stuff from Matvienko as he finished the bout behind his jabs and right hooks to the body. For his part Daniels clearly knows his stuff yet is a less effective version of a Brendan Ingle fighter. It became clear early that Alex could box his way to the clear 60-54 win that was applied across the board. Performance of the day?  The matchmaker. Knockdowns. Stoppages both clean and violent. Cuts. Drama and general mayhem at times.  For a late night Ricky Hatton fight wearied writer the performance of the day has to go to the matchmaker who ensured that there was plenty to keep not-so-bright eyes focused on the action throughout.

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