• Welterweight

Ortiz in need of new foe after freak Gomez injury

Victor Ortiz has been out of action for 18 months after suffering a badly broken jaw against Josesito Lopez © Getty Images

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Welterweight Alfonso Gomez suffered a freak hand injury this week, forcing him to withdraw from a December 14 fight with former titleholder Victor Ortiz.

They were due to meet at the Alamodome in San Antonio on the Showtime-televised undercard of the Adrien Broner-Marcos Maidana welterweight title bout. Ortiz-Gomez wasn't formally announced until Saturday, but on Tuesday, Gomez suffered the injury and pulled out of the fight.

"He broke his hand in a freak accident," Golden Boy matchmaker Eric Gomez (no relation) told ESPN. "Carrying his baby daughter, he tripped and fell. Protecting her, he fell on his arm and broke his hand."

Gomez (23-6-2, 12 KOs), a former welterweight and junior middleweight title challenger and former star of The Contender reality series, would have been fighting for the first time in 17 months. He is coming off back-to-back losses, a decision to Shawn Porter in July 2012 and a sixth-round knockout to Canelo Alvarez in a September 2011 junior middleweight title fight.

Eric Gomez said he is in the process of looking for a replacement opponent to face Ortiz (29-4-2, 22 KOs), who will remain on the card.

The fight with Alfonso Gomez had been a scheduled 10-rounder at 147 pounds, although with a new opponent, Ortiz might fight in the 154-pound junior middleweight division.

Ortiz is coming off an 18-month lay-off. He lost his previous two bouts, a fourth-round knockout to Floyd Mayweather Jr., in which Ortiz lost his world title, and a ninth-round stoppage against Josesito Lopez in June 2012. In the fight with Lopez, Ortiz suffered a badly broken jaw, the key reason he has had such a long lay-off.

This article originally appeared on ESPN.com
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