Portal:Ireland/Selected biography archive/22

Michael Gomez (born Michael Armstrong, 21 June 1977), also known as "the Irish Mexican" or "the Predator", is a professional boxer. He was born to an Irish Traveller family in Longford, County Longford, Ireland, spending his early years in Dublin before moving to Manchester, England with his family at the age of nine.

Gomez fights in the lightweight division, having previously fought in the featherweight and super featherweight divisions. During his career he has amassed a number of championship title belts: the IBF Inter-Continental featherweight title; and the British, WBO Inter-Continental, WBA Inter-Continental and WBU super featherweight titles. He was the first Irish boxer to win the Lonsdale Belt outright.

Gomez, who has been compared to Johnny Tapia, has lived a turbulent life and has often been involved in controversial fights. In Gomez's initial matches he suffered a number of losses to journeyman opposition but then went on a run of victories which stretched for almost four years. Of his 17 fights between February 2001 and March 2008, 16 ended in knockouts. Concerns arose about his drinking and failure to adhere to his diet and training regimes after a 2001 loss to Laszlo Bognar. Gomez appeared to be "back on track" in 2003, with his high-profile fight against Edinburgh-based fighter, "Amazing" Alex Arthur for the British and WBA Inter-Continental super featherweight titles, which Gomez won by delivering a knockout blow to Arthur in the fifth round.

In 2006, Gomez suffered a controversial loss to Peter McDonagh when, in the middle of a round, he dropped his guard and walked out of the ring, later saying he had retired from boxing. He returned to the ring after a 15–month interval. On 21 June 2008, Gomez lost what was seen as possibly his last bout—a last chance saloon opportunity to resurrect his career against rising star and Olympic silver medallist Amir Khan. The fight ended with Gomez suffering a TKO when the referee stopped the fight in the fifth round. Read more...