By James Slater: Currently one of the hottest and most exciting fighters in the sport (and, for what it’s worth, this writer’s current favourite), Yuriorkis Gamboa has some massive future fights in the works according to promoter Bob Arum.
According to Arum (who was quoted by Ringtv.com), the Cuban sensation will, if he gets past the hard-hitting Daniel Ponce De Leon on September 10th, have a great shot at landing two big fights: one with the winner of the upcoming Orlando Salido-Juan Manuel Lopez rematch, and then a fight with the sizzling “Filipino Flash” Nonito Donaire.
Gamboa is expected to defeat De Leon, as dangerous as the Mexican banger is, while the Salido-Lopez return is seen by many as a pick ‘em fight, with perhaps the edge going to Salido. As for Doniare, the bantamweight champ faces the much smaller Omar Narvaez in his next fight; so he too is expected to win. Donaire will then look to make the move up to featherweight and this is where Arum sees the Gamboa fight taking place.
Arum wants to match Gamboa with the winner of Salido-Lopez II first, though.
“As far as I’m concerned, big, big fights for Gamboa down the road are the winner of Juan Manuel Lopez and Salido,” Arum said. “I would hope to make that fight by early next year. And then, probably the biggest fight in the featherweight division would be with the up and coming bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire, who will be coming up to featherweight next year and that would be a big, big match.”
Would it ever!
While Gamboa Vs. Lopez would be a big fight, it would have been a whole lot bigger had the two met (as originally suggested) when the two were unbeaten. Now, with “Juanma” having been stopped by Salida, the fight, while still intriguing, has lost some of its lustre. As for Salido if he beats Lopez for a second time: he has already met and lost to Gamboa.
It is the prospective fight with Donaire that will excite most fans, surely. Gamboa is awesomely fast and powerful, while Doniare is seemingly the full package: fast, powerful, accurate and technically flawless. If he can maintain his amazing skills up at 126-pounds, the Pound-for-Pound entrant will be a genuine threat to Gamboa’s featherweight dominance. This fight could well be an absolute classic. Let’s all hope Arum can do as he plans and make it happen.
And though the also excellent Chris John is the man many fans would point to when it comes to identifying the best active featherweight, the Indonesian does indeed deserve credit for being the long-reigning WBA champion. But with John doing as he is and fighting relative no-names in his homeland, it’s easy to se why he’s missed the boat with regards to proving he is the best (that win over Juan Manuel Marquez was a long time ago). According to Gamboa, he has wanted to fight John for a while now, but “The Dragon” has appeared uninterested.
Give credit to Gamboa for wanting to fight the best. John? He may sadly go down as a relatively wasted talent unless he gives his career a kick-start in the U.S against the top names fighting in his weight-class: Gamboa, Lopez and Salido being the current stars.