Wilfredo ‘Bazooka’ Gómez, Three-Division Champion and Puerto Rican Boxing Great, Dies at 69
Gómez died Saturday night in Puerto Rico at 69 after about two weeks in a hospital with respiratory complications, his son confirmed. The Hall of Famer made 17 straight knockout title defenses at super bantamweight — a record that still stands.
Wilfredo “Bazooka” Gómez, the Puerto Rican knockout artist whose reign at 122 pounds set a standard no champion in the division has matched since, died Saturday night in Puerto Rico. He was 69.
His son, Wilfredo Gómez Jr., confirmed the death to Telemundo, saying his father passed at about 9 p.m. Gómez had been hospitalized in San Juan for roughly two weeks with respiratory complications, and his son had asked fans earlier in the week to pray for him. The family has not given an official cause of death. WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman shared the news early Sunday on X, calling Gómez “one of the greatest fighters of all time,” and former WBO President Paco Valcarcel also announced the loss.
Gómez finished his professional career with a record of 44-3-1 with 42 knockouts, winning world titles at super bantamweight, featherweight and super featherweight. He entered the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995, his first year of eligibility.
A run of knockouts that still stands
Gómez was born Oct. 29, 1956, and raised in the Las Monjas section of San Juan, the neighborhood that gave him his other nickname, “El Niño de Las Monjas.” He boxed for Puerto Rico at the 1972 Munich Olympics at age 15, won gold at the first World Amateur Championships in Havana in 1974, and turned professional that November.
His pro debut ended in a draw with Jacinto Fuentes in Panama — the last time one of his fights at super bantamweight would require the judges. Gómez stopped his next 32 opponents in a row. On May 21, 1977, in San Juan, he climbed off the canvas in the first round to knock out Dong Kyun Yum in the 12th and win the WBC super bantamweight title. He defended it 17 times, and every one of the 17 defenses ended by knockout — a record for any division that still stands.
The signature night came Oct. 28, 1978, at Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan. Carlos Zárate arrived from Mexico at 52-0 with 51 knockouts. Gómez dropped him repeatedly and finished him in five rounds, in one of the defining chapters of the Puerto Rico–Mexico boxing rivalry.
Defeat, more titles, and an island’s farewell
The rivalry also handed him his most famous defeat. On Aug. 21, 1981, in Las Vegas, Gómez moved up to challenge WBC featherweight champion Salvador Sánchez in “The Battle of the Little Giants.” Sánchez dropped him in the first round and stopped him in the eighth. Gómez wanted the rematch, but Sánchez died in a car accident less than a year later; Gómez traveled to Mexico to pay his respects, and Mexican fans embraced him for it for the rest of his life.
He returned to 122 pounds and, on Dec. 3, 1982, in New Orleans, stopped bantamweight champion Lupe Pintor in the 14th round of one of the great fights of the decade, with both of his eyes nearly swollen shut. He then moved up again: he outpointed Juan Laporte in 1984 for the WBC featherweight title, lost it to Azumah Nelson later that year, and edged Rocky Lockridge in 1985 for the WBA super featherweight title to become a three-division champion. He lost that belt to Alfredo Layne in 1986 and retired for good in 1989.
Life after boxing was hard on him, and his health had been a concern for years, including a 2022 hospitalization that worried the island. But in Puerto Rico he remained simply the kid from Las Monjas — and the argument over the island’s greatest fighter always had his name in it.
Reporting based on coverage by BoxingInsider and Boxing247.
