Juan Carlos Gómez (born 26 July 1973) is a Cuban former
professional boxer
Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...
who competed from 1995 to 2014. He held the WBCcruiserweight title from 1998 to 2002, and challenged once for the WBC
heavyweight
Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling.
Boxing Professional
Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the Wo ...
title in 2009.
Amateur career
*Amateur Record: 158–12
*1990 – Gold Medal World Junior Championships in Lima at 75 kg
*1994 – Represented Cuba at the Chemistry Cup, his results were:
Defeated Jan Schwank (Germany) 9–4
Lost to
Sven Ottke
Sven Ottke (born 3 June 1967) is a German former professional boxer who competed from 1997 to 2004. He was a unified super-middleweight world champion, having held the IBF title from 1998 to 2004, and the WBA (Unified) title from 2003 to 2004. W ...
(Germany) 9–9
*1994 – Competed at the USA Vs Cuba Cup in Ledyard, USA
Defeated
Antonio Tarver
Antonio Deon Tarver (born November 21, 1968) is an American former professional boxer and boxing commentator. In boxing he competed from 1997 to 2015, and held multiple light heavyweight world championships, including the WBA (Unified), WBC, IBF ...
(USA) 10–10
*1995 – Represented Cuba at the Chemistry Cup, his results were:
Lost to
Thomas Ulrich
Thomas Ulrich (born 11 July 1975, in Berlin) is a German former professional boxer who competed from 1997 to 2012. He challenged twice for a light-heavyweight world title: the WBC title in 2005, and the WBO/ lineal titles in 2006. He also held t ...
(Germany) 12–16
Professional career
Cruiserweight
The southpaw turned pro as a cruiser for Universum box promotions.
On 21 February 1998, in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Gómez won the WBC Cruiserweight title from reigning champion, Marcelo Fabian Dominguez via a
unanimous decision
A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighter ...
.
Nickname
A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...
d "Black Panther", Gómez ruled the cruiserweight division from 1998–2001, successfully defending his WBCCruiserweight title against ten different fighters.
Among his notable defenses were those against Dominguez (rematch),
Imamu Mayfield
Imamu Amiri Mayfield (born April 19, 1972) is an American professional boxer who competed from 1994 to 2008, and 2016 to 2017.
Career
Mayfield turned pro in 1994 and was a popular local fighter known for being on boxing cards in various New Jers ...
and the smaller Jorge Castro who was KOd for the first time.
James Toney
James Nathaniel Toney (born August 24, 1968) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2017. He held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the IBF and lineal middleweight titles from 1991 to ...
declined a title shot when he was mandatory and later fought and beat Vassily Jirov.
He then vacated the title in February 2002 in order to move up to the Heavyweight ranks.
Heavyweight
In 2001 Gómez tested the waters in the heavyweight division and beaten durable veteran
Al Cole
Alfred Rudolph Cole (born April 21, 1964), best known as Al Cole, is an American former professional boxer. He won the IBF cruiserweight title and was a major force in the division until moving up to heavyweight, where he had less success. In 20 ...
(another former Cruiserweight champ) by TKO 6. Gómez then moved back down to defend his title against
Pietro Aurino
Pietro Aurino (born November 16, 1976, in Torre Annunziata, Province of Naples) is a retired male boxer from Italy. Nicknamed ''The Killer'' he represented his native country at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was stopped ...
, and after defeating Aurino he moved up to heavyweight permanently.
Gómez has had some success at heavyweight, capturing wins over
Sinan Samil Sam
Sinan (Arabic: سنان ''sinān'') is a name found in Arabic and Early Arabic, meaning ''spearhead''. The name may also be related to the Ancient Greek name Sinon. It was used as a male given name.
Etymology
The word is possibly stems from th ...
Cuban
Cuban may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Cuba, a country in the Caribbean
* Cubans, people from Cuba, or of Cuban descent
** Cuban exile, a person who left Cuba for political reasons, or a descendant thereof
* Cuban citizen, a perso ...
Yanqui Díaz
Yamplier ("Yanqui") Azcuy Díaz (born January 23, 1976, in Pinar del Río) is a former professional heavyweight boxer from Cuba.
Amateur career
Diaz started boxing at the age of twelve and had 205 amateur fights (191-14). He fought as an amateur ...
in the first round in 2004.
Gómez defeated
Don King
Donald King (born August 20, 1931) is an American boxing promoter, known for his involvement in several historic boxing matchups. He has been a controversial figure, partly due to a manslaughter conviction and civil cases against him, as well a ...
promoted Oliver McCall via a ten-round decision on 15 October 2005, a result which was changed shortly thereafter to a no contest after Gomez failed a post-fight drug test due to a presence of cocaine. Gómez vehemently denied the charge and backed this up by producing a negative test where no drugs were found in his system, though this test was taken two months after the fight.
After that Gómez announced that he converted to
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
. Gómez stated, '"After they stole my victory over Oliver McCall because of doping in October 2005 I was totally devastated. I swear that I never doped in my life. After the fight I went to the USA where I was built up by the Black Muslim community. That's why I converted to Islam. I thank
Allah
Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", an ...
for giving me back my courage, energy and self esteem."' Gómez then returned to the ring on 15 December 2006 and on 19 October 2007, once again outpointed Oliver McCall winning the WBC International Heavyweight title in the process, then on 27 September 2008, at the
Color Line Arena
The Barclays Arena (originally known as the Color Line Arena and formerly known as barclaycard arena and O2 World Hamburg) is a multipurpose arena in Hamburg, Germany. It opened in 2002 and can hold up to 16,000 people (13,800 or 12,947 for spo ...
in
Hamburg, Germany
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
, Gómez defeated
Vladimir Virchis
Vladimir Virchis ( uk, Володимир Вірчіс; 18 August 1973 – 28 January 2022) was a Ukrainian professional boxer. Competing from 1999 to 2009, he held the European heavyweight title from 2006 to 2008.
Life and career
Virchis, ...
to become the #1 contender for the WBC heavyweight title.
Gómez faced WBC Heavyweight titleholder
Vitali Klitschko
Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko (; uk, Віта́лій Володи́мирович Кличко́ ; born 19 July 1971) is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer who serves as mayor of KyivWBA International Heavyweight title. He went on to defeat Alexander Kahl of Germany on April 9 in Hamburg to record his second victory in a fortnight.