Looking Back – Frankie Gomez

East LA boxer Frankie Gomez (21-0, 13 KOs) turned pro in the spring of 2010, fighting on the undercard of legend Bernard Hopkins. By the spring of 2016, he was 21-0, a red-hot prospect, and seemed to be headed for big things in the sport.

That was 10 years ago. He hasn’t fought since his last fight. Boxing heavy hitters like Oscar D La Hoya, Freddie Roach, and Top Rank Boxing, among others, were all very high on the can’t miss prospect.

Gomez was a championship-bound prospect when he decided to go pro in 2010 (as opposed to waiting until the 2012 Olympics) after an enticing offer from Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. Gomez, who started boxing at age 5, certainly made his mark in the amateurs, running up an impressive 120-8 record. He won 4 Junior Gold Glove titles, 4 Silver Glove titles, 6 Junior Olympic titles, the Gold Medal at the AIBA Cadet World Championships in 2007, a Ringside World title in 2008, and the Silver Medal at the AIBA World Championships in 2009.

Impressive stuff. And he was always told he had a style more suited to the pros.

Tough, aggressive, a good chin, a calm, focused demeanor in the ring that belied his young age - it was time to punch for pay. De La Hoya, who knows a great fighter when he sees one, was very big on Gomez.

"I’ve been watching his career closely for years, and Gómez is one of the best amateur boxers I’ve seen in a long time,” said De La Hoya. “He’s a true-blue chip prospect, and he has all the tools to become a world champion and a star in this game”.

Gomez, facing former world champion Mauricio Herrera in April of 2016, knew a win would be the next step to looking at a world title shot in the not-too-distant future.

Fighting on the Alvarez-Khan undercard in Las Vegas, after 10 rounds, Gomez had his signature win and had all of boxing talking about him as a guy to keep watching.

At the time, he told Roach that he would be back in the gym in a few weeks. The few weeks turned into a few months. After eventually returning and appearing ready to get back to work, he disappeared again. This time for good. It was certainly an odd time to leave the sport.

It is hard to know why a guy with so much talent would choose to exit his career on the brink of some serious money and opportunities. Now, 10 years later, we’re still talking about him. He left a lot of fans wondering what could have been.