By James Slater – Yuriorkis Gamboa, the quite sensational Cuban featherweight king, did it again last night. Looking sizzling in stopping tough Mexican Jorge Solis inside four breathtaking rounds, scoring multiple knockdowns along the way, the 29-year-old handed Solis his most comprehensive defeat yet. Even the great Manny Pacquiao had to settle for an 8th-round KO win when he met Solis back in 2007 and, dare I say it: Pac-Man didn’t look as good as the Cuban typhoon did against the Mexican.
No-one is saying Gamboa, 20-0(16) is as good a fighter as the reigning Pound-for-Pound king; not yet anyway. But the former Olympian and all-round superb amateur sure is looking as though he may one day be right up there with the Filipino icon atop the P-4-P charts. Gamboa looked faster, more powerful and just plain unstoppable last night at The Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Many good judges expected Solis, now 40-3-2(29) and the winner of his previous three outings going into the 126-pound title clash, to give Gamboa his toughest test to date; maybe even upset him. Instead, “El Ciclon De Guantanamo” ripped through the 31-year-old with seemingly effortless ease..
The question now is what next for Gamboa? Everyone knows the fight they want to see made: Gamboa against Puerto Rican southpaw bomber Juan Manuel Lopez. Promoter Bob Arum has been teasing us with the idea of this potentially explosive match-up for some time now, insisting the fight must be allowed to grow into the super-fight it can be. Enough already – we need to see this fight this year!
As exciting as the thought of fights like Klitschko-Haye (signed for the summer) and Pacquiao-Mayweather (not signed but we remain in hope!) are, the anticipation of this guaranteed lower-weight classic has many fans, myself included, pumped up even higher. All we need now, it seems, is for “Juanma” to get past Orlando Salido in April, and then the fight that has captured the imagination of so many hardcore fight fans can happen. And even though neither Gamboa nor Lopez are mega-star, householder names the way Mayweather and Pac-Man are (not yet anyway), a match-up between the two would be a huge deal for fans as well as being a fight that could elevate the winner into genuine star status.
Gamoba is up for the fight, so too is Lopez. We now implore Bob Arum to do his job and give us what we need!
Gamboa is certainly confident he can beat Lopez, and a while back, when speaking with Fighting Fit magazine, he explained why he will become the first man to defeat the Puerto Rican.
“Lopez has power but not so much speed,” Gamboa insisted. “I have both and I will fight him and I will expose him when this happens. Juanma can keep facing hand-picked opponents, because, as I said, I will expose him.”
It doesn’t sound as though Gamboa is all that impressed with Lopez, 30-0(27). The poker-faced assassin is in the minority on this score, though, as many fans rate Lopez right up there with him. This is why we need to see the fight, to see who is the best. In an ideal world the two would clash this summer; with the winner then meeting up with the also-excellent Chris John. Is this too much to ask!?