Facts about Carlos Gongora
Carlos Gongora (20-0, 15KOs) will defend his world title to challenger Lerrone Richards (15-0, 3KOs) on December 11 at the AO Arena in Manchester on the undercard of the rematch between heavyweight rivals Joseph Parker and Derek Chisora.
As it's his first fight in the UK, there's not a great deal known about the visitor so BBN found out some interesting facts all about Carlos Gongora right here:
He was born Carlos Gongora Mercado on April 25, 1989, in Esmeraldas, a coastal city in northwestern Ecuador. He now lives in Napos, Ecuador.
As an amateur, he won a bronze medal at middleweight at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio and another bronze at light-heavyweight at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara. He also won silver (2006) and gold (2010) at the South American Games. He also competed in the Chicago World Championships in 2007 but was stopped by the overall winner Matvey Korobov, and entered again in the Milan 2009 series but still didn't win a medal, then again in Baku 2011. He won fights in every World Championships he entered, with a record of 5-3 over the three campaigns.
He was a two-time Olympian, first taking part in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he won his first two contests before losing to Indian superstar Vijender Singh in the quarter finals. He also qualified for the London 2012 Olympics, winning his furst match then losing in the round of 16 to overall finalist Adilbek Niyazymbetov.
Just one of his 20 professional fights has been fought in his home country of Ecuador, the other 19 were all in the States, where he resides for training camps in Boston, Massachusetts. His 21st fight will be his first in the UK.
The southpaw won the IBO World super-middleweight title in December 2020 when he stepped in at late notice as an 8-1 underdog against undefeated Kazakh sensation Ali Akhmedov. His manager, Mike Criscio, had no hesitation in accepting the fight with less than three weeks to go. Gongora had to drop down from 190lbs to make the 168lbs weight limit, and only had a limited amount of sparring with a former opponent of Kell Brook, Mark DeLuca, and heavyweight Jim Torney.
Despite their confidence, Gongora was stunned in rounds two and four, but he came back strong in the second half of the contest to bust Akhmedov's right eye. In the final round, his trainer Hector Bermudez told him, "Let me tell you something, if you don't knock this guy out, you're a loser in Ecuador. All we worked for so hard, you're gonna piss it all away." He got the message and dropped his man twice with hard uppercuts to end the contest.
Prior to that, he was a promotional free agent, but signed with Matchroom soon after becoming the IBO World 168lbs champion.
His trainer welcomed fights with John Ryder and Billy Joe Saunders, but was satisfied with Lerrone Richards for a title defence.
His uncle is three-time world title contender Segundo Mercado, who was an IBF Inter-Continental middleweight champion in the 90s. He fought Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins to draw in 1994, knocking him down twice in their IBF World middleweight championship match. They rematched four months later in 1995, but this time 'The Executioner' won in round seven.
Stats
Fights: 20
Won: 20
Lost: 0
Drawn: 0
KOs: 15
KO Ratio: 75%
Height: 6ft 1in
Reach: 72in
Age: 32
World Rankings
WBC #11
IBF #11
Ring #9
TBRB #5
BoxRec: 11
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