Wilfredo 'Bazooka' Gomez, three-weight world champion, dies at 69
Wilfredo 'Bazooka' Gomez, the Puerto Rican three-weight world champion famed for concussive punching power, has died aged 69.
His passing was confirmed on 11 October 2026 by former WBO president Paco Valcarcel. The WBC, the World Boxing Council and one of boxing's four major sanctioning bodies, said Gomez had been in hospital for two weeks with respiratory complications and reported he died at around 9:00 p.m., according to BBC Sport and the WBC.
Gomez won world titles in three separate weight classes. He held the WBC super-bantamweight title at 122lb, the WBC featherweight title at 126lb, and the WBA super-featherweight title at 130lb.
His professional record stood at 48 fights, 44 wins and 42 wins by knockout. That stoppage rate made him one of the most feared punchers of his era.
His path started remarkably early. Gomez boxed at the 1972 Olympics aged just 15. Two years later, aged 17, he won gold at the inaugural World Amateur Championships in Cuba.
He turned professional soon after and built his reputation at super-bantamweight. In his signature win, he stopped Mexico's Carlos Zarate in five rounds in San Juan to retain his WBC title. Zarate was 52-0 at the time.
The WBC credits Gomez with 17 consecutive defences of that super-bantamweight crown, all won by knockout.
He chased greatness above his best weight. He was knocked out by Salvador Sanchez in 1981 in a WBC featherweight world title fight. He was knocked out by Ghana's Azumah Nelson in 1984 in another WBC featherweight world title fight. He later regrouped to claim a third crown at super-featherweight.
Gomez was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995.
For fans coming to this story for the first time, the numbers only tell half of it. Gomez fought in an age of small, packed arenas and fierce Puerto Rico-Mexico rivalries, when holding even one world title meant clearing out a division. To do it across three weights, and to stop almost everyone he beat, explains why his name still travels with respect in gyms from San Juan to Peckham.
