EDINBURGH'S British super-featherweight champion Alex Arthur looks to win a coveted Lonsdale Belt outright when he defends against former champion Michael Gomez of Manchester in his home city at a sold out Meadowbank Stadium tonight.
The unbeaten, talented Arthur, fighting for the first time in Edinburgh as a pro, won the vacant British title (vacated by Gomez) with a crushing fourth round knockout of Steve Conway last year, and has since proved too strong and hard-hitting for brave and capable challengers Carl Greaves and Willie Limond.
He stopped the previously unbeaten Limond in eight rounds in a spicy Edinburgh v Glasgow confrontation in July - in a fight that prompted incredible pre-fight wagering on Limond, though in the event, Arthur won pretty convincingly. It was his first fight under new trainer Freddie Roach and the champion showed far more fluidity than in previous contests after back problems caused by constant driving between Edinburgh and Peter Harrison's Cambuslang gym in Glasgow led to the end of their fighter/trainer relationship.
"Normally I'm pretty mechanical, one dimensional, and I really do think that had something to do with my back trouble," said Arthur after the fight. "But now I've got my American trainer Freddie Roach, who is fantastic and Terry McCormack, who trained me for the Commonwealth games and the Olympic trials.
"Back then, my style was much more fluid with fast punches, slippery head movements and hard body shots and that's what we're getting back to," he continued, though Roach will not be in his corner tomorrow night because he is contracted to Manny Pacquiao for his eagerly awaited showdown with Mexican superstar Marco Antonio Barrera. (Martin Elorde, Pacquiao's manager, was unhappy at the prospect of Roach leaving his boxer's camp to spend a fortnight in Scotland and had threatened to withhold the trainer’s $25,000 fee).
Alex puts a brave face on it. "It won't be a major blow," he says. "Terry McCormack has spent time in the States with Freddie discussing the fight.
"I'm comfortable with Terry. Most of the hard work has been done already when I spent a week in Los Angeles last month at Freddie's gym."
But there's no doubt it is a blow, especially as the champion has also been struggling for quality sparring at his Edinburgh training camp. Challenger Gomez is an aggressive, all-action fighter, chomping at the bit to fight Arthur, even in the champion's own backyard. "I'd go to his back garden for the fight," he declared recently. "Everyone knows what I'm like. Everyone is writing me off already against Alex Arthur, everyone is saying that Alex Arthur would beat me, but he won't."
An erratic, emotional performer, Gomez can look world class on his best night (and was once ranked number one super-featherweight by the WBO), but is also liable to come apart if his best shots fail to deter a man. He floored Hungary's Lazlo Bognar with a wicked left hook to the body in the fifth round of their 2001 encounter at Widnes, but then ran out of steam, and seemingly ambition, and was rescued in the ninth by referee Dave Parris.
Kevin Lear also stood firm in the face of Gomez's strength and determination in their WBU title showdown last year in Manchester, and forced the local man to retire on his stool after eight bruising rounds.
Many reckoned Gomez was shopworn afterwards, but, make no mistake, the Manchester man would have beaten a lot of opponents with the strength and determination he showed against Lear - and has since bounced back with three quick wins. He is especially dangerous in the early rounds of any fight. He has stopped current Commonwealth super-featherweight champion Craig Docherty in two rounds (cutting and wobbling him), Gary Thornhill in two (the left hook that first floored Thornhill was an absolute beauty), Carl Greaves in two (again, courtesy of another smashing left hook), Craig Spacie in three, and Jimmy Beech in four. He also floored Bognar twice and stopped him in three rounds in a quick rematch (though was down twice himself).
Arthur is equally dangerous early on. Fourteen of his 16 wins have come by stoppage or knockout, nine of them inside four rounds. But he is also more capable of pulling out the big shots later on a fight than Gomez is. He pulled out a cracking left hook against South Africa's spirited Patrick Malinga in the sixth (a wobbly Malinga was stopped moments later) - and also kept up his attacks for eight rounds against Limond, for six more against Carl Greaves and gritty Russian Nikolai Eremeev, and for 10 against the tough Pole Dariusz Snarski, before finding the finishing shots each time.
Gomez won't be hard to find. The ex-British super-feather champion has already won a Lonsdale Belt outright at this weight, so can concentrate solely on his opponent and the job in hand, pushing the lanky champion back, and trying to match him in the exchanges. This could turn into a real tear-up in fact. Arthur, for all his height and reach, bears no fighting comparison to a man he is inevitably compared to, Edinburgh's brilliant-boxing Ken Buchanan. He's much more of a front foot fighter, digging in shots to head and body, and, like Gomez, favouring the left hook - he likes to fight. And yet Arthur is no inside fighter, much preferring to punch his way forward with long rights, then hooking around the sides with body shots, both of which require space. When he gets too close, he looks for the referee to shout 'break'. Gomez looks to work. He IS very good inside, adept at hooking and uppercutting. He easily outpunched fellow hooker Gary Thornhill to capture the vacant British super-featherweight crown in September 1999.
Michael proved as good a champion as Arthur currently is. He saw off the challenges of Pithie and Greaves - and also looked good in his other defences against two lanky Scots: Craig Docherty and Ian McLeod (McLeod never fought again), though the Bognar and Lear setbacks suggested a lack of genuine world class as he sought to step up. But at British level. Tomorrow night's level. He's top class. He brings a 28-5 record to the fight, 18 by stoppage or knockout. That's a high stoppage ratio for a man who's been matched tough at times.
"I was never beaten in the ring in a British super-featherweight fight, and I regard myself as the rightful champion," says Gomez, who relinquished the title to concentrate on his vacant WBU super-featherweight title fight with Kevin Lear. Gomez subsequently blamed a lack of dedication and focus for defeat against Lear and set about changing his lifestyle. He left trainer Brian Hughes - amicably - to join Billy Graham’s Phoenix camp, and has looked rejuvenated in his three fights since the Lear shocker.
"Since the Lear fight I have trained so hard," he says. "I realised that I didn't do a lot of things right, but all that has changed now.
"I've knuckled down and everything I do is geared to getting a shot at Arthur, and when I do I plan to rip my title back off him.
"Alex looked good against Willie Limond in his last fight, but he wasn’t really being hit. In the past he hasn't looked comfortable when he's under pressure, and I plan to put him under plenty of pressure when we meet.
"I hit harder than anyone he has faced before, and I’ll expose the myth in front of his own fans."
But Arthur's crushing third round stoppage of Lazlo Bognar in three rounds in November 2001 in Glasgow, clearly favours the Scot in the build-up to this one, given how Bognar twice gave Gomez nightmares - and beat him in their first fight of course. What's more, Arthur has shown consistent ability right from his amateur days (where he captured a Commonwealth gold medal and won two bouts in the world championships before losing a close one to fellow unbeaten pro, Rocky Juarez of the States). Gomez blows hot and cold. He's also had a long, hard career, and can he really hope to turn back the clock? How many time do you hear talented sportsman, many of whom squandered their best years, suddenly start to knuckle down when they see the end of the road approaching (think of Paul Gascoigne)? Gomez hardly squandered his best years, but lost his one 'world' title fight to Lear and knows he'll never have another sniff if he loses to Arthur. That Lear defeat in fact, is hard to overlook. An unbeaten ex-amateur star like Arthur, Lear used good boxing skills and strength to stay with Michael in the bruising middle rounds of their fight, then came back at his man and, marked up and bleeding, Gomez was unable to get through it. Sheffield impresario Brendan Ingle believes Arthur will do something similar. "Take all this 'new Gomez' stuff with a pinch of salt," he said recently. "Alex Arthur will knock Gomez out in around six to nine rounds. Arthur is not only a superior boxer to Gomez but will hit too hard for him."
Michael's former trainer, however, Brian Hughes, warned Arthur to watch out for Gomez's left hooks out of a crouch. "He's knocked out lots of opponents from there," he said.
While Arthur hasn't looked as good as the hypsters would have us believe recently, he's unbeaten and hasn't really been troubled in his career to date. That speaks for itself. And with Alex finally getting his wish to fight in his home city, he will be determined to put on a show in what will be a packed Meadowbank stadium. Forget the slight struggle the champion had to make the weight yesterday (he was six ounces over, which is nothing) - as well as the laughable bad feeling invented by the two fighters in order to sell tickets (which worked). These two respect each other and will be fighting coolly, professionally, and to the very limit of their abilities tonight.
It should make for a great fight, with both men having moments of early success. But the homecoming Arthur should prove too rounded for Gomez in the end. He retains his title by the eighth.
Arthur-Gomez: a preview
Arthur-Gomez: a preview
Last edited by bennie on 25 Oct 2003, 10:55, edited 1 time in total.
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