By Terence Dooley

Manchester’s Michael Gomez, 32, retains the power to shock and amaze the professional boxing world, despite the fact that he officially retired from licensed boxing in the aftermath of his seven-round TKO loss to Ricky Burns in March of this year. 

Since that night, Gomez has dipped his toes into the unlicensed waters, and the whole world stood up and took notice when it was announced that Michael would fight fellow former professional boxer Rob Newbiggin, who retired in 2007 with a 3-12 slate.

Indeed, the proposed fight hit the New York Daily News headlines, this was entirely due to the fact that Rob is not your average boxer, most of whom elect to move up a weight class in order to seek pastures new, Newbiggin is taking this idea a step further. 

Rob is set to undergo a sex-change operation, after the operation he intends to change his name to Mercedes, and he will, hopefully, fight his way through the ranks of female boxing’s finest competitors, as well as doing some modelling work, and making some money in painting and interior design.

Actually, Rob’s painting skills got him his first break in the sport of boxing, the fighter painted a mural for the reptile tank of local trainer Billy Graham, who housed his lizard (‘Liston’) in the tank.  Graham repaid Newbiggin by allowing the boxer to train at Graham’s then-bustling Phoenix gym ahead of Newbiggin’s unsuccessful ring comeback in 2007; Rob sparred a round or two with Matthew, not Ricky, Hatton during his brief stint at The Phoenix.

Rob tussled with Gomez on tonight’s Danny Hornsby-promoted show at the Ritz nightclub, Manchester, in a fight to determine who is The Man of the local unlicensed boxing circuit. 

The Man is still a man, for now and ever more, as it was Gomez, not Newbiggin, who emerged victorious from this off-circuit dust-up after fighting his way to a third round stoppage win.

Gomez had shrugged off pre-fight claims that this was a novelty contest, to Michael the equation was simple – he was being paid to fight, and he would fight hard, and to win.  When pressed about the confusing nature of his opponent’s gender, Gomez insisted that he does not hit women, but he had decided to make an exception in this case. 

“If he's confused about his sexuality now, he won't have a clue when I've finished with him,” had been the pre-fight war cry from Gomez.

Still, Gomez is no saint, the two men scuffled before the first bell had even rang; Michael was warned for biting Newbiggin in the first round, he also got away with a nip on the inside in that same round.  Rob was warned in round two for holding; Gomez’s fighting experience finally prevailed at 1:48 of round three.

Rob gave it his best shot, but must now bid adieu to men’s boxing with a final ‘L’ on his record, then again, the fight was unofficial, so he can write the loss off, and press on with his career, he will now join the female boxing ranks – Rob Newbiggin for Team GB in London 2012, anyone?

Rob was born in Pennsylvania in 1964; the Newbiggin’s, who had moved to Canada from Manchester, adopted him at an early age.  Newbiggin told The Southport Visitor that his adopted father, Ted Newbiggin, had always tried to encourage him to be more ‘masculine’, hence the boxing career.

“My dad said that I had to act like a man because people wouldn't accept me as anything else,” claimed Rob.  “He was trying to protect me.  I didn't find out I was adopted until I was 16, and then about how I was born, but then it all started making sense to me.”

Newbiggin, now 44, is married, to a woman, he also has three children, but was born an ‘intersexual’, he could not be definitely classed as a man or a woman, and had always felt more like a woman than a man, understandable given his high oestrogen levels. 

Indeed, Rob was born with male sex organs, but high levels of the female hormone meant that he could not be 100% classed a man or a woman, something Rob did not find out until later in life, and this cruel stroke of nature has plagued him for most of his adult life, before he took the brave step of going ahead with, and announcing, his sex-change plans.

There is an echo of Herculine Adélaîde Barbin in all of this.  Barbin was born in the 1800’s, an intersexual, like Rob, Barbin was diagnosed as a girl at birth, and took the name Alexina, only to be later declared a man, this after having spent her life living, training, and working as a young woman. 

Upon discovery, Alexina was renamed Abel Barbin, and sent out into the male world, Barbin died alone, and by his own hand, in 1868.  Times have moved on, fortunately, and Rob soon-to-be Mercedes can now achieve his dream of gender-unity.

A change in sex, and career, may be just the tonic for Rob, who can reasonably claim that he has bid a machismo-soaked farewell to his time as a man, aged or not, shot or not, you need some serious cojones to take on Michael Gomez, let alone go one-on-one with him in an unlicensed boxing match.

Newbiggin’s recent revelations have seen him cop plenty of abuse, people wind down car windows to scream obscenities at the boxer, the fight with Gomez, if it is indeed Newbiggin’s final stand as a man, has underlined Rob’s masculine qualities; however, Newbiggin, in making the change, has followed his own will, and shown more bravery than most men could muster.

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