Michael Gomez
Michael Armstrong was born into an Irish traveller family in Longford, Ireland. He moved to Manchester, England, with his family at the age of nine. Armstrong boxed as an amateur before turning professional in June 1995. Gomez took the surname Gomez after his childhood hero Wilfredo Gómez. He won the British super-featherweight title twice.
About Michael Gomez in brief
Michael Armstrong was born into an Irish traveller family in Longford, Ireland. He moved to Manchester, England, with his family at the age of nine. Armstrong boxed as an amateur before turning professional in June 1995. Gomez took the surname Gomez after his childhood hero Wilfredo Gómez. He won the British super-featherweight title twice, from 1999 to 2004. He also held the WBU super featherweight title from 2004 to 2005. In 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. Despite previously being undefeated, Gomez previously beat Danny Rueggre on the bill that included Robin Reid and Michael Brodie on the undercard of his fight with Amir Khan on 21 June 2008. Gomez retired from boxing in 2006 after a controversial loss to Peter McDonagh when, in the middle of a round, he dropped his guard and walked out of the ring. He has been compared to Johnny Tapia, has lived a turbulent life and was often involved in controversial fights. He developed a ring nickname based on his persona based on this, which has remained popular with fans throughout his career. His supporters wear sombreros to his fights and wave Irish flags during his fights. Gomez also wears long Mexican-style boxing shorts in the shape of the flag of Ireland and often has his hair shaved into the shamrock shape of a shamrock. He chose his ring name in honour of Puerto Rican boxer Wilfrede Gó mez, whose videotaped fights Armstrong had studied intently as a youth.
The name, combined with Gomez’s brawling style, earned him the nickname of ‘The Irish Mexican’ He has a Mexican Mariachi band, Mariachi Mariachi, which is a reference to his Hispanic-sounding name, and many of his supporters wear the name on the back of his head. He is married to Alison, who has remained his companion throughout his professional career; they were parents by the time Armstrong was 17. Armstrong has a son, Michael, who is also a professional boxer and has fought in the lightweight and welterweight divisions. He currently lives in Manchester with his wife Alison and their son Michael, and has a daughter, Charlotte, who lives in London with her mother and step-father, David. He previously lived in Dublin with his mother and father, but moved to London with his father when he was nine years old to be closer to his sister Louise, who had died from sudden infant death syndrome. He was a serial truant from school and was involved in petty crime throughout his youth in Manchester. He began training at Brian Hughes’ Collyhurst and Moston Boys’ Club. He stopped playing football for a local North Manchester team until the club received so many fines for Armstrong’s fighting on the pitch that they were unable to pay them. In 2003, he won by knocking out Alex Arthur for the British and WBA Inter-Continental super-Featherweight titles, which Gomez won in the fifth round.
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This page is based on the article Michael Gomez published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
