Escobar won the fight by ninth round knockout[3] and thus he became Puerto Rico's first world boxing champion, being the object of a large welcoming at the San Juan seaport days later.
Such was the case when Carlos Ortiz fought Battling Torres and José "Pipino" Cuevas's three victories over Puerto Rican Angel Espada.
[3] Carlos Zárate of Tepito was born on May 23, 1951; he debuted as a professional boxer on February 22, 1970, with a second round knockout of Luis Castaneda in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and had a string of 22 consecutive knockout wins broken by Victor Ramirez, who went ten rounds before losing on points with Zárate on January 30, 1974, at Mexico City.
Before fighting Gómez, Zárate had to overcome another popular foe in WBA world Bantamweight champion, the also Mexican Alfonso Zamora, in a bout that took place on April 23, 1977, in Inglewood.
Zárate won the bout by fourth round technical knockout and was therefore, viewed by boxing fans and the press as the superior of the two reigning world bantamweight champions.
[6] Gómez lived in Central America during this period; he then won six in a row by knockout, including a rematch win against Fuentes, before debuting as a professional in his home country of Puerto Rico by taking out 14-2 Joe Guevara in six rounds, September 19, 1975, in San Juan.
Zárate has claimed all of his bones hurt and that he wanted to postpone the contest but he was threatened with being sued for twice the money he was going to make shall he not fight that afternoon.
Zárate got up and received a standing eight count but Gómez pursued him to the same corner immediately and began punishing him with punches to the head and body there.
To add to the confusion, the bell signaling the end of round four had apparently rung before Zárate's second fall but the sound of it was inaudible due to the roar of the crowd celebrating the fight.
Gómez then proceeded to hit Zárate with a right hand to the head as the challenger and world bantamweight champion lay on the floor.
Referee Harry Gibbs, however, apparently had not ordered Gómez to stop fighting, so he had no reason to disqualify him and he stopped the fight at that moment, Zárate's cornerman Arturo Hernandez having thrown in the towel to signify Zárate's team quitting, and Gómez retained the WBC world super bantamweight title by a fifth round technical knockout.
He won ten more fights in a row, all by knockout, before facing Salvador Sánchez for the latter's WBC world featherweight title.
Among those ten contests, there were championship defenses versus Nestor Jimenez, Julio Hernandez, Carlos Mendoza, Nicky Nico Perez, Ruben Valdes, Derrik Holmes and Jose Cervantes.
Gómez moved to Venezuela and ran into personal problems, including a stint in jail for drug possession,[10] and a visit to a rehabilitation center in Colombia, but he rebounded, found religion in his life and in 1998 declared himself a newborn Christian.
Zárate fought for world titles again twice but lost to Jeff Fenech, again attempting to become the WBC's world super bantamweight champion, by fourth round technical decision in Australia, October 16, 1987, and to Daniel Zaragoza by a tenth round technical knockout at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California on February 29, 1988, also for the WBC super bantamweight title which by then had been vacated by Fenech.