Former WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (30-2, 18 KOs) smashed former three-time WBO super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez (30-4-3, 18 KOs) by a second round knockout. Martinez, 36, was knocked down twice by big shots from the 37-year-old Gamboa. After the second knockdown of the round, the fight was waived off. Although both guys are the same age, Gamboa looked like the younger, fresher and far more powerful of the two fighters.
Martinez caught Gamboa at a wrong time in his career, because the 2004 Olympic gold medalist from Cuba has really turned things around in winning his last four fights since losing to Robinson Castellanos in a surprise seventh round stoppage two years ago in May 2017. The way that Gamboa is fighting right now, he would be pure trouble for Castellanos of the two were to fight today.
Gamboa could be facing Gervonta Davis next
The plans are for Gamboa to now face WBA super featherweight champion Gervonta Davis later this year. Both guys won tonight at the Royal Farms, and can now progress forward to meet up. Gamboa looked worlds better than Gervonta’s opponent Ricardo Nunez tonight, but that’s not surprising.
Gamboa was an incredible talent when he first turned pro 12 years ago in 2007. He was viewed by some boxing fans as the Mike Tyson of the featherweight division. The way that Gamboa fought tonight, he could be a lot of problems for Gervonta. Gamboa has got the speed, power and the build to give Davis trouble.
Undefeated Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (22-0, 21 KOs) successfully defended his WBA super featherweight champion by defeating Ricardo Núñez (21-3, 19 KOs) by a second round knockout on Saturday night on Showtime World Championship Boxing at the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland.
Davis stunned Nunez with a big shot, and then teed off on him with a storm of shots until the referee Harvey Dock stepped in and stopped the fight. The fight was halted at 1:33 of round two. Nunez, 26, was still fighting back, but he was getting drilled by nonstop shots from Gervonta. Nunez was being held up by the ropes, and that’s obviously why the referee stopped it. He was getting pummeled by Davis, who is clearly the hardest puncher in the super featherweight division. David looked like he was punching holes through Nunez.
Nunez looked like he could have continued fighting, but he wasn’t able to get out of the way of all the shots that Gervonta was hitting him with. The round was only halfway over, and Gervonta landing some monstrous shots. The crowd wasn’t happy at the quick stoppage, but Nunez was getting hit with too many clean shots for the referee to let the fight continue.
