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PICKING UP THE PIECES
Wednesday 2 October 2002
Story by David Gomez for espn.com
Stage one of the Heavyweight Boxing Federation's World Championship tournament reached its completion just over a month ago. In the time since Sonny Liston decimated Lou Nova at Madison Square Garden on that final night there's been a deal of talk about those competitors who were talented enough to progress to stage two, most of the conversations focusing on their chances of securing a much-coveted semi-final berth. In all the excitement it's easy to forget those individuals who only just missed out, the fighters who could taste and almost touch a spot in the last 32 but now find themselves on the outisde looking in. There's some fantastically skilled young men amongst them, boxers who would certainly do themselves proud if they'd managed to qualify for the business end of the tournament.
Of those who failed to achieve that goal, Florida Alliance member Elmer Ray was probably the most high-profile. The young firebrand was heavily hyped and publicised, as much for his actions in the ring as out. However, the circumstances of his failure were not especially tragic. Everything was there for him in his final bout: a parochial Miami crowd, the support of his fellow Alliance members and the knowledge that anything better than a loss against Floyd Patterson would see him qualify. But Ray froze like a deer in the headlights, producing his worst performance of the tournament and getting pummeled in a clear cut unanimous decision defeat. No, Ray's situation is nothing to feel pity over, despite the fact that if he'd defeated 16th seed Jimmy Young earlier in the tournament he'd be preparing for stage two right now (he lost a split decision).
Looking at the final stage one standings there's probably four fighters whose non-qualifications for stage two were quite unfortunate. Let's go through each of them:
* TOMMY GOMEZ
One of Ray's fellow Florida Alliance members, Gomez needed an upset victory against top seed George Chuvalo in his August 15 series seven bout to progress and going into the fight's final round it looked like he might do it. Expert New York Sun observer Peter Roman had him leading 49-47 through five but in the 6th Chuvalo absolutely smashed him, punishing Gomez throughout the round and landing 54 punches but failing to knock him down.
When the verdict was revealed it was heartbreak for Gomez as the result was a draw, not good enough to see him progress. To make matters worse it was later discovered that judge Mikael Hook had scored the final round 10-8 to Chuvalo, despite no knockdown occuring. This made his scorecard 57-57 but if he'd awarded Chuvalo a 10-9 round as the other two judges had, Gomez would have been a split decision winner. Many claimed the situation was scandalous but save for some words of disappointment immediately after the verdict "Tampa" Tommy has not discussed the bout publicly.
Gomez was named as the #7 seed for the upcoming Continental Americas Championship tournament and has apparently been putting all his energies into preparing for it. If his efforts in the World Championship tournament are any indicator he'll be a top contender for the American title.
(to be continued)
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