Photo Credit: Team USA Boxing
El Paso is known as Chuocotown and its the boxing capital of west Texas. It has produced former women's world champ, Jennifer Han. It is now the home to an amateur international champion as well. El Paso native Kayla Gomez becomes the Flyweight (51KG) champion after shutting out Cai Yan of China. Via 5-0 decision. Chuocotown
A jubilant Gomez talked about her performance saying " I was consistent throughout and kept throwing lots of punches. It feels good to win. I had never fought my opponent in an actual fight before, but I had sparred with her and that certainly helped me. I knew something about her and that knowledge paid off. China has a good boxing team, so this was a good win."
It was a good win in what was the first international boxing event held in the US since 2018 and the first elite international competition since the 2007 Elite Men’s World Championships. Gomez, 19, dominated the competition and added the international title to her list of prior boxing titles and accomplishments that include:
2021 Junior Pan American Games - 1st
2020 USA Boxing Youth National Championships - 1st
2019 National Junior Olympics - 1st
2019 Western Regional Open - 1st
2018 Under Armour Junior Female Boxer of the Year