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Show j A number of Uintah Basin fans attended at-tended the Salvador Sanchez and Wilfredo Gomez fight for the World Boxing Council featherweight title which was beamed from Las Vegas to the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City Friday. The fans were treated to an exciting fight which consisted of sitting on the canvas by Gomez and countless shots by each fighter during the encounter. en-counter. Both boxers made predictions before the fight and the only fighter who made his predictions come true was Sanchez. Before the fight with Gomez Friday, Sanchez, the World Boxing Council featherweight champion, who took the title from Uintah Basin's Danny "Little Red" Lopez, remarked, "I admire his record (Gomez), but he's just another challenger, nothing more. Gomez better take a picture of himself because after the fight he won't recognize himself." Sanchez retained his featherweight crown when he stopped challenger Gomez in the eighth round due to a technical knockout over previously unbeaten Wilfredo Gomez. "I wished the fight had gone the full 15 rounds so I could have punished him more," said . Sanchez. Sanchez began his quest to make Gomez unrecognizable early as the 126 pounder dropped Gomez with a thundering thun-dering left hook only 40 seconds into the bout and spent the remainder of the scheduled 15-round bout using both hands to cut up Gomez' face. The pro-Sanchez pro-Sanchez rooters in the Salt Palace went wild when Sanchez decked Gomez, who had won 32 fights on knockouts. The fans leaped into the air and shouted support to Sanchez and some of the fans who had been delayed at the popcorn and refreshment stand came back with puzzled looks on their faces and were disappointed that they had missed one of the biggest shots of the fight. Gomez, the World Boxing Council super bantam weight champion who successfully defended his crown 13 times, never recovered from the first round knockdown. He was up at the count of four, but an ugly welt began to form under his right eye. By the sixth round, both eyes were nearly closed. The Puerto Rican boxer Gomez, continue to press the attack as he landed many punches which piled up points, but didn't, do any damage. -Sanchez count erpunched successfully and connected with Gomez' head a number of times. The end of the fight came at 2:09 of the eighth round when Sanchez of Mexico ripped Gomez with a barrage of lefts and rights to the head which sent Gomez half-down and half-through half-through the ropes. Gomez staggered to his feet by the count of eight, but referee Carlos Padilla stopped the bout. Gomez' predictions before the fight were "I'm not going to do anything different for this fight. I'm coming forward from the first round on looking for him. I'm going to go after him from the first bell. I'll soften him up in the first five. I'll hit him in his heart, his liver, his lungs and his pancreas. If it goes over ten he'll never fight again. He'll never fight again because of the punishment he'll receive. They won't need a referee; the only thing he'll do is count to ten over Sanchez." ' From bell to bell," Gomez said through his interpreter, "I will be like a hunter looking for a rabbit. I plan to go for the body early and wear the champion down. I do not underestimate under-estimate Sanchez, but if the fight goes over ten rounds, I predict Sanchez will never fight again," the champion of the 122 pounders stated. Some of Gomez' predictions were better suited for Sanchez as the champion went after Gomez from the first bell, punished Gomez face with many blows, which resulted in two closed eyes in the fight and visits to the canvas and forced the referee to perform per-form his counting skills over Gomez. The fight, which was Sanchez' sixth title defense, improves his record to 40 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw. Sanchez has won 30 of his fights due to knockouts. Gomez' record is 32-1-1. As soon as Sanchez began landing his punches in the eighth round, which would cause the fight to bo stopped, a pro-Sanchez fan performed a jumping in-front-of-thc-scrcen act as he celebrated the blasting of Gomez by Sanchez. One instant relay was played of the blistering attack by Sanchez and the excited fan decided the rest of the crowd wanted to sec his high leaping performance so he jumped in front of the screen once again. Two of the three judges scored the fight 07-65 for Sanchez San-chez through seven rounds and the other judge scored it 67-66 for Sanchez. Lewis Feild of Peoa, Utah, who competed in the 19K1 Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo in Vernal in July captured all-around all-around cowboy honors nt the Nampa, Idaho, Snake River SI (impede with earnings taken in saddle bronc and bareback bronc riding He split 3rd 4th with Mickey Young, a Wellington, Utah cowboy, who lias also competed in the Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo, In the Imrchack bronc event at 75 points and won $1,127. Feild split seventh and eighth In the saddle bronc riding for $222.95. |