Life is good for Alfonso Gomez right now. He has a wonderful family, with wife Dulce, and daughter Heidi Luna. He sings in his own band, Hy3rid, and also writes music for them. He has a family that supports him in his boxing career, with his father, Alfonso Gomez Sr. acting as his trainer.

But to say that Gomez is ready for his upcoming fight at the Morongo Resort and Casino in Cabazon, California is an understatement. On May 21st Gomez, with a record of 22-4-2 and 11 KO’s, will go up against Calvin Green (21-5-1, 13 KO’s). I spent part of a day watching Alfonso train at the Maywood Boxing Club before getting to speak with him.

On this day he sparred a total of nine rounds, five with Brandon Adams, and four with Javier Molina. Totally different fighters here, both in style and experience. Adams has had only two pro fights and four amateur contests. The young Molina had a long and successful amateur career and has had several professional fights. In fact, Molina fought on the Ward/Abraham undercard this past weekend and won his fight by unanimous decision, winning every round on all three cards.

“I like sparring with kids that let me work up there,” he told me. “I can measure my distance and work on everything else we’ve talked about in training. It’s great sparring with those kind of fighters because they allow you to work, and at the same time they learn a lot, fighting with an experienced fighter like myself.”

Gomez has not been in the ring since March of last year, and I asked him to remind me why. “Four fights last year fell through because of injuries. I pushed my body at a young age. I wasn’t one of those fighters that got protected by the promotions. I got pushed early, so therefore I pushed harder in the gym than most fighters do. So right now I’m starting to feel the injuries.

“Yet I’m learning too, as I go. Now I know how to work around the injuries and still keep my conditioning, still do well in the gym, and still be able to spar. I’m feeling more than healthy. The injuries are gone. A year and a half without fighting, that should be enough to heal anybody. So it’s all a matter of experience, and I’m glad I’m going to get this fight, especially in Southern California, because I haven’t fought here in many years.”

As is the norm with boxers now, Alfonso uses a combination of boxing and conditioning for his training. He has added something else to his recipe. “I train physically through boxing, I train on conditioning through my conditioning and strength coach, but I also train my mind with motivation. I’m finding what gives me that hot white desire, that burning desire to be champion, and that’s one reason why I’m training so hard. I find this fight the first step in reaching this goal.”

He explained that one can train their mind to always be excited and have that desire to always be successful. “If you have that motivation every day, then you come to the gym every day like you love it, because you do!

“And this is the main event – I’m always on the undercard – so being the main event in Southern California is great! That’s also why I’m training so hard. Friends and family will be there and I don’t want to disappoint anyone, especially myself. He (Green) is coming to my house, Southern California, to challenge me, so I’ve got to make sure that he doesn’t go away with the victory.

“This is the beginning, four or five fights more, or two fights, or one more, and I get a big one,” he continued, “which is what I’m looking for. My name’s up there in the rankings and I’m recognized all over the world, so if I can put in a good performance against a great fighter like Calvin Green – a very tough opponent – than that should show Top Rank and the rest of the world that I’m ready for something bigger again. Fighting is my passion, and I’m training hard, because I’m going for Pacquiao. I know everybody’s going for him, but he’s number one on my idol list, and he’s also number one on my hit list!”

Unlike some fighters, Alfonso watches tapes of his opponents. “I like making a plan for them,” he told me. “Most fighters are very repetitive with their instincts, especially when they’re under pressure. Your instinct comes out more than your mind. I like to watch the repetitions certain fighters make to capitalize on that.

“I know Green likes to come forward so I’m working to make this a really exciting fight. I’m Mexican, so I love to fight those types of fighters.”

It was time to talk about Gomez’ band, Hy3rid. “Ah, I love my band! My brothers Robb and Jesus (Dr. Zeus) and I started it. I love rhyming in Spanish. I find words have a lot of power, so finding a way to rhyme and use word play to make it funny or really hit people and have them feel what you’re saying – it’s as challenging as being up in the ring and having people like what you do in there. I love the music, I love rapping. I have more than 1000 songs written down.”

When I showed surprise Alfonso explained. “I didn’t know I was a writer until I started with my band 10 years ago. But now that I look back I started writing music when I was eight. I just thought it was something that everybody did. Now I realize that not everybody does it and I just have the talent for it.

“I never liked rap, I’ve always been a romantic type, listening to Jose Jose, Luis Perales, all those romantic singers and songs. When I started getting into rapping I fell in love with the word play that the rappers do, so I started to implement that in Spanish. So far people are loving it. The music is a mixture of hip-hop, rock in Espanol, and just a mixture of different songs.”

But Gomez lets his brothers handle the music. He doesn’t want to get in the way of that, nor does he want to have music get in the way of his boxing right now. “I concentrate on my boxing and my brothers handle the music. Whenever they need me to perform I’m there, whenever they need me to write music I write it down. But in terms of promotions and gigs, that type of thing, they handle it.”

Besides the three Gomez brothers, the other members of the band are Tavo, who is the bassist, and Daniel, the keyboard player who also acts as a DJ.

So Alfonso is content. “Life is good because I want it to be good. I have a beautiful wife who is very good to me, I have a gorgeous daughter. I have a great dad that trains me every day. I have a great father and family who support me in my career, so really I’m rich in all those things.

“I’m in the best sport in the world where I’m an individual. I’m not in any group or on a team where if I get tired they send me out, or if we lose I can blame somebody else. I’m in the most beautiful sport in the world because it’s just myself and someone else. I couldn’t ask more of life. Now it’s just a matter of training hard, really staying motivated, and looking for that success that everybody looks for in life.”

With that attitude, I look for great things from Alfonso. He’s a good guy, and good guys should finish first sometimes! I want to thank him for his time and wish him good luck in his fight against Calvin Green.


Be safe and God Bless,
Viva La Raza,
Barb.