Last night in Cancun, Mexico, 35 year old Yuriorkis Gamboa kept his career alive with a win – but only just. The once seemingly untouchable Cuban scraped through with a ten round MD over Mexico’s Alexis Reyes, prevailing by scores of 95-94 twice in the 135 pound bout, the third judge seeing things all square at 94-94.
Gamboa is now 27-2(17), 22 year old Reyes, who has never been stopped, is now 15-3-1(7).
Former WBA and IBF featherweight world champion, Yuriorkis Gamboa, sneaks back into the boxing landscape on August 12th, when he takes on 15(7)-2(0)-1 Alexis Reyes, in the Oasis Arena, Cancun, Mexico. Far removed from his exalted position as one of the most highly regarded fighters in the game, the 35 year old Cuban is attempting to reignite his claim for a title shot against the rugged Mexican. His hopes were earlier extinguished by an upset defeat to the highly experienced and unjustly unheralded Robinson Castellanos, who stopped Gamboa in May of this year.
Both electrifying fighters in their prime, Cuba’s Yuriorkis Gamboa and Puerto Rico’s Juan Manuel Lopez seemed to have superstar status ahead of them. Both men managed to win a world championship – in fact both fighters won a couple of belts each – but overall the lofty heights that were expected were never reached.
Today, with both fighters trying to fight on whilst being way past their best (Gamboa recently suffering a shock stoppage defeat at the hands of Robinson Castellanos, “Juanma” having suffered a number of especially gruesome KO defeats) there is a big sense of ‘what if?’
Continuing to honor its pledge to make competitive fights, Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN delivered two significant upsets in the main and co-main events on Cinco De Mayo, with lightweight Robinson “Robin Hood” Castellanos (22-11, 14 KOs) taking out Yuriorkis “El Ciclon de Guantánamo” Gamboa (26-2, 17 KOs) in the main event and Jesus Rojas (25-1-2, 18 KOs) claiming the WBA-NABA featherweight title from Abraham “El Chamaco” Lopez (22-1-1, 15 KOs) in the co-main.
Cuban talent and one-time pound-for-pound star Yuriorkis Gamboa returned to the ring on last night’s David Lemieux-Curtis Stevens card in New York, but unlike the main event, Gamboa’s decision win over Rene Alvarado failed to electrify the crowd. Boxing for the first time since December of 2015, former featherweight king Gamboa had to make do with a reasonably wide ten round UD.
Now aged 35 and a Golden Boy fighter, Gamboa improved to 26-1(17) but he failed to impress; even suffering a flash knockdown late on in last night’s bout. Gamboa had been hoping for a big fight with reigning WBO super-featherweight champ Vasyl Lomachenko (and probably still is) but it’s unlikely the Cuban defector did much to increase his chances.
In a match up that was guaranteed to end in a knock out, David Lemieux (37-3, 33 KOs) lived up to his promise of taking out Curtis “The Cerebral Assassin” Stevens (29-6, 21 KOs) in a jaw-dropping third round stoppage to claim the WBO Intercontinental and WBC Continental Americas Middleweight belts live from Turning Stone Resort Casino and televised on HBO Boxing After Dark.
“I told you what I was going to do tonight,” said David Lemieux. “What I saw was a ‘check mate’,” said Lemieux. “The punch was made with perfect landing. I am in great shape, and I prepared myself for him. He is physically strong but nothing special. Stevens is a solid fighter, and we were successful. I wish him the best, and I hope he is OK.”
Far too good to have been out of action for as long as he has (just one fight in the last 12 months and just four fights since December of 2012) Cuban talent Yuriorkis Gamboa has finally got himself another fight. The former featherweight champion, now aged 34 (Gamboa will turn 35 on December 23rd) will face Puerto Rican Frank De Alba in Saint-Denis, France on December 17th.
It would be a superb match-up between two of the finest boxers currently doing their thing in the lower weight classes, and Yuriorkis Gamboa wants it: a fight with the man promoter Bob Arum has gone as far as to say is the best he has ever seen – Vasyl Lomachenko. Gamboa, back training with Ismael Salas, ha snot fought since December of last year, but he is currently training and a fight will hopefully be announced soon.
Gamboa, a former champion at featherweight as well as an interim champ at 130-pounds, has been defeated just once in his pro career – in that thriller with new pound-for-pound star Terence Crawford – and he said on Twitter shortly after watching Crawford’s master class of a win over Viktor Postol how he gave Crawford a much tougher fight and this is why Top Rank are “keeping Vasyl Lomachenko away from me.”