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Yoelvis Gomez will have to wait a few more weeks for his 2022 debut.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that an intriguing junior middleweight bout between Gomez and veteran puncher Jorge Cota has been postponed. A hand injury suffered by Gomez forced the team surrounding the Cuban prospect to pull the plug on his planned appearance on a March 26 Showtime tripleheader from The Armory in Minneapolis.
The injury suffered by Gomez (5-0, 5KOs) was deemed as not severe enough to draw concern of an extended ring absence, though significant enough to have him rest and rehabilitate. With that came the decision to push back the fight rather than find a new opponent for Cota (30-5, 27KOs).
The rest of the March 26 show remains intact, though the card itself was put together as a contingency plan. Headlining the show, Australia’s Tim Tszyu (20-0, 15KOs) makes his anticipated U.S. debut as he faces 2012 U.S, Olympian and current bubble contender Terrel Gausha (22-2-1, 11KOs). As previously reported by BoxingScene.com senior writer Keith Idec, the show will also include a battle between unbeaten lightweights Michel Rivera (22-0, 15KOs) and Joseph Adorno (14-0-2, 12KOs).
It is unclear as this goes to publish if Showtime will replace Gomez-Cota with another fight to keep the show as a tripleheader.
Gomez enjoyed a breakout 2021 campaign, ending the year with a sensational first-round knockout of the normally durable Clay Collard. The fight took place as part of a special Christmas night edition of PBC on Fox from Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Gomez fought in the U.S. for the first time in that win, though the Shane Shapiro-managed boxer from Havana now lives and trains in Las Vegas.
Cota has not fought since a fourth-round knockout loss to Sebastian Fundora last May in Carson, California. The 34-year-old knockout artist from Los Mochis, Mexico won two straight prior to that fight, including a fifth-round stoppage of Thomas ‘Cornflake’ LaManna in January 2020, just prior to the pandemic. While more of a gatekeeper than contender, Cota still represents—on paper—the toughest test of Gomez’s young career to date.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox