Golden Boy Sign Amateur Star Gomez
ESPN are reporting that Golden Boy promotions have signed US amateur standout Frankie Gomez to a multi year contract. Gomez, who is just 18, won a silver medal in last years World Amateur Championship. I truly believe that the World Championships are the tougher competition in boxing to medal in. Gomez was one of the youngest boxers in the tournament, and he made a serious statement in going all the way to the final. I viewed him as Team USA’s best prospect for 2012, and losing him at this stage has to be considered a huge blow to American amateur boxing.
Gomez has a good pro style. He’s a real pressure fighter. He never gives his opponent space to breath, and forces them to fights his type of fight. His power looks solid, and it will probably continue to develop over the next few years. The guy is definitely a super prospect, but the question is why the hurry? Gomez is still a really young guy, and the Olympics are now less than two years away. That extra couple of years experience would really stand to him, and that’s not even to mention the impact a good Olympics would have on his marketability.
It’s probably a shrewd move on the behalf of Golden Boy though. Competition for his signature would likely intensify after the 2012 games. If they were to hold off, they would risk losing him to another promoter. They already have him tentatively scheduled to debut on the April 3rd card headlined by Roy Jones vs. Bernard Hopkins.
Gomez was the only member of the American team to medal at the World championships, and he is not one they will easily replace in time for London in 2012. The biggest difficulty in maintaining a successful amateur program is holding on to your best fighters. If the American team is to rebound from the disappointments of the Beijing games, they can ill afford losses of this magnitude.
Frankie Gomez vs. Egidijus Kavaliauskas
I guess you can’t blame the kid for taking the contract. I just hope it doesn’t bite him in the rear end.
Yeah, it’s probable that they just made him an offer he couldn’t afford to pass up. I’m not sure what type of support there is for amateurs over there, but it seems that they let far more slip through the net. I know team USA were very pleased to secure some of the younger guys from Beijing for another four years, but then a talent like Gomez emerges and they lose him almost instantly.
Over here and in the UK, the top amateurs are given quite good grant payment so that they can focus on training and don’t have to worry about making ends meet. Then they can make their move after the games, when they have built themselves a name and fan base.
It can be very hard for a prospect to build up a following, and coming home as a national hero is certainly one of the better ways to do it. It would also put him in good favour with the tv companies as well. Instead he is starting out from scratch. I’m sure he has the talent to make it work, but he’s taking the much tougher road in my opinion.
He will be better off with Golden Boy than (Bob Arum) that’s for sure.
In a lot of ways I agree. It ensures that he will get some good tv exposure, and that he will be strongly marketed.
The only drawback that I see is that Goldenboy haven’t been that great at protecting their prospects as of yet. Now, whether prospects need to be protected as much as they are nowadays is up for debate, but Goldenboy have taken a lot of flack for their prospects’ failings.
I don’t think a loss for a young fighter is the end of the world, but it seems that many people still value a perfect record above all else. Thus when a Victor Ortiz gets smashed up people quickly write him off as a product of mere hype. Top Rank may be better at keeping their boxers undefeated until they can get them into some big money fights.
I agree. I don’t think it was the fact that Ortiz lost. It was the way he lost and his admission of giving in.
I don’t even think it was because he quit. I think it was more the way he responded to it post fight. There was a certain arrogance to his demeanor. He didn’t seem particularly disappointed by losing his big hbo main event. He was just sort of like Yeah I quit, so what. I think a lot of people looked at that and decided he didn’t have the hunger for the sport.
In my opinion there was no shame in the manor of his defeat. It just showed his inexperience more than anything. He got drawn into a shoot out against a really tough guy, and he came out on the losing end. That happens sometimes when guys get used to just blasting through opponents, and then they come up against someone who doesn’t budge.
But I definitely do feel that losing the 0 is still a huge negative as far as perception goes. That needs to change in my opinion. Perro Angulo is another great example. He came up short against a good fighter in Kermit Cintron, and people were talking like he was nothing. I think it was Lou Dibella said it on fightcamp 360 “this is the only sport in the world where one loss can destroy your whole career”