Wilfredo Gomez, the Puerto Rican knockout artist whose reign at 122 pounds remains the standard for the division, died Saturday night in Puerto Rico. He was 69, less than three weeks shy of his 70th birthday.

His son, Wilfredo Gomez Jr., confirmed the death to Telemundo, saying his father passed at around 9 p.m. Gomez had been hospitalized in San Juan for about two weeks with respiratory complications, and his son had asked fans earlier in the week to pray for him. The family has not given an official cause of death.

WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman shared the news early Sunday on X, calling Gomez “one of the greatest fighters of all time” and wishing that his memory be eternal. Former WBO President Paco Valcarcel also announced the loss.

Gomez was born on October 29, 1956, and raised in the Las Monjas section of San Juan, which gave him his other nickname, “El Niño de Las Monjas.” He was a prodigy. He boxed for Puerto Rico at the 1972 Munich Olympics at age 15, then won gold at the first World Amateur Championships in Havana in 1974 before turning professional that November.

His pro debut was a draw with Jacinto Fuentes in Panama. It was the last time one of his fights at super bantamweight would need the judges. Gomez stopped his next 32 opponents in a row.

On May 21, 1977, he got off the canvas in the first round to knock out Dong Kyun Yum in the 12th in San Juan and win the WBC super bantamweight title. He defended it 17 times. All 17 defenses ended by knockout, a record for any division that still stands.

The signature win came on October 28, 1978, at Roberto Clemente Coliseum. Carlos Zarate arrived from Mexico at 52-0 with 51 knockouts. Gomez dropped him repeatedly and finished him in five rounds, the defining night in the Puerto Rico and Mexico rivalry of that era.

The rivalry also handed him his most famous defeat. On August 21, 1981, in Las Vegas, Gomez moved up to challenge WBC featherweight champion Salvador Sanchez in “The Battle of the Little Giants.” Sanchez dropped him in the first round and stopped him in the eighth. Gomez wanted the rematch badly. Sanchez died in a car accident less than a year later, and Gomez traveled to Mexico to pay his respects. Mexican fans embraced him for it for the rest of his life.

He returned to 122 pounds and on December 3, 1982, in New Orleans, stopped bantamweight champion Lupe Pintor in the 14th round of one of the great fights of the decade, with both of his eyes nearly swollen shut.

Gomez then went up in weight and kept collecting belts. He outpointed Juan Laporte in 1984 for the WBC featherweight title, lost it to Azumah Nelson later that year, and edged Rocky Lockridge in 1985 for the WBA super featherweight title to become a three-division champion. He lost that belt to Alfredo Layne in 1986 and retired for good in 1989 with a record of 44-3-1 with 42 knockouts.

He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995, his first year of eligibility.

Life after boxing was hard on him. Gomez battled addiction in the years after his career and his health had been a concern for a long time, including a 2022 hospitalization that worried the whole island. Through all of it, his standing at home never slipped. In Puerto Rico he was simply the kid from Las Monjas, and the argument over the island’s greatest fighter always had his name in it.

The numbers explain why. Seventeen title defenses, seventeen knockouts. Nobody at 122 pounds has come close since.