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West Valley City • At the National Golden Gloves boxing tournament in Arkansas last summer, West Valley City's 18-year-old Michael Gomez ran into a roadblock on his quest to qualify for the 2012 United States Olympic boxing team.
That roadblock's name is Luis Olivares, a teenager from Arizona who beat Gomez in a quarterfinal bout at 152 pounds in Little Rock.
This weekend, Gomez will likely get what he has been working toward for almost a year now: a rematch with Olivares, 18.
Salt Lake City's Fight For Your Life boxing gym, 1483 S. Major Street, will host the Four Corners Regional tournament, featuring state champions from Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. Weigh-ins and the draw will take place Friday morning, so Gomez won't know until then if he will get his long-awaited shot at the Arizona champion that night, or in the finals (if both boxers prevail on Friday).
"I am not letting this dude from Arizona come beat me in my hometown," Gomez said Wednesday between training sessions at West Valley City's only boxing gym, the new K.O. Boxing Gym in an industrial park near 3500 South and 1950 West. "I want revenge."
Like Gomez, Olivares also dreams of qualifying for the Olympic team, he told The Arizona Republic last fall.
Champions who emerge from this weekend's regional will move on to the national finals in July in Colorado Springs, Colo., at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. Winners of those bouts in Colorado will get invitations to the Olympic Trials in early 2012.
Olivares won a bronze medal at the USA National Championships last July.
"It's every kid's dream to make it to the Olympics, then turn pro, and Michael is getting real close," said his father, Gary "Pit Bull" Gomez, a professional boxer in his own right who calls himself the "coach" at the new, nonprofit gym in West Valley City.
The K.O. Boxing club will also enter Utah Junior Olympic Champion Johnny Gomez (Michael's brother and Gary's son) in the 80-pound division this weekend, as well as Mary Malinga in the female division at 112 pounds.
Bouts begin at 5:30 p.m. both nights, and admission is $12 for adults.
For 18-year-old Gomez, the bouts will mark one of the last times he fights in Utah as an amateur. He plans on turning pro in the near future, after the Olympics if he makes it that far, or before them if he misses his chance to qualify. A lefty, Michael Gomez's style is better suited to professional boxing, Gary Gomez believes. Michael was the first Utahn to win a Police Athletic League (P.A.L.) national championship when he took the national crown as a 14-year-old in Oxnard, Calif.
"I want to turn pro so I can start earning money and make a better life for my daughter [15-month-old Kendra]," Michael Gomez said. "That's what motivates me to train hard every day."
The teenager "has been boxing since he could stand up, almost," Gary Gomez said. "This gym [in West Valley City] is what he needed to get him to the next level. Now it is up to him."
But first things first, including the big showdown with Olivares this weekend.
Four Corners Regional Boxing Tournament
When • Friday and Saturday, 5:30 p.m. both nights
Where • Fight For Your Life Gym, 1483 S. Major Street, SLC
Who • State champions from Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado (about 20 bouts per night)
Admission • $12 for adults, $7 for children 6-12, children 5 and under free