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 fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...
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
Male boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 2 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation an ...
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 (Germany) 9–9
*1994 – Competed at the USA Vs Cuba Cup in Ledyard, US
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, ...
(USA) 10–10
*1995 – Represented Cuba at the Chemistry Cup, his results were:
Lost to Thomas Ulrich (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 fighte ...
.
Nickname
A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...
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 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 International Boxing Federation (IBF) and lineal ...
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 (another former Cruiserweight champ) by TKO 6. Gómez then moved back down to defend his title against Pietro Aurino, 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 ...
Don King
Donald King (born August 20, 1931) is an American boxing promoter, known for his involvement in several historic boxing matchups.
King's career highlights include, among multiple other enterprises, promoting "The Rumble in the Jungle" and the ...
promoted
Oliver McCall
Oliver McCall (born April 21, 1965) is an American professional boxer who began competing professionally in 1985. A veteran of the sport for over three decades, he is best known for winning the WBC heavyweight title in 1994 by scoring an upset k ...
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 is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
. 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 ( ; , ) is an Arabic term for God, specifically the God in Abrahamic religions, God of Abraham. Outside of the Middle East, it is principally associated with God in Islam, Islam (in which it is also considered the proper name), althoug ...
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
Oliver McCall (born April 21, 1965) is an American professional boxer who began competing professionally in 1985. A veteran of the sport for over three decades, he is best known for winning the WBC heavyweight title in 1994 by scoring an upset k ...
winning the WBC International Heavyweight title in the process, then on 27 September 2008, at the
Color Line Arena
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 sportin ...
in
Hamburg, Germany
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
, Gómez defeated Vladimir Virchis to become the #1 contender for the WBC heavyweight title.
Gómez faced WBC Heavyweight titleholder
Vitali Klitschko
Vitalii Volodymyrovych Klychko (; ; born 19 July 1971), known as Vitali Klitschko, is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer. He serves as mayor of Kyiv,WBA 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.