Absent from the ring for one year, exciting boxer Yuriorkis Gamboa makes his long-awaited return on June 28 when he challenges Terence Crawford for the WBO lightweight world title at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, USA. A 50-Cent fighter, Gamboa has a lot at stake in a fortnight?s time? he puts his unbeaten record on the line, can become an outright champion of a second weight class (barring interim belts) and is desperate to claim victory in order to become the first champion under the SMS promotional banner.
You like headhunters? Watch Gamboa. He fights like a food-starved wolverine, unperturbed at giving away height or size advantages as he boxes with aggression without neglecting skill. He has undeniable power in each hand (signature shots include left hook and overhand right), is competent in throwing punches in bunches, has pound-for-pound top ten hand-speed between guys like Amir Khan and Manny Pacquiao but, what makes him must-see TV is that, not only does he possess exquisite athletic abilities such as these, but that he is also susceptible to suffering flash knockdowns. Like Khan, like Andre Berto, like Victor Ortiz, Gamboa is an attack-first animal but, unlike the aforementioned trio, he is yet to taste defeat and has boxes with a greater thought process. Gamboa has a collection of elite-level performances. He breezed through Jorge Solis (while showing an improved defence), he broke-down and beat up Rogers Mtagwa and, while his combination-punching can force a technical knockout stoppage, his concussive KO of Al Seeger was haunting. At the end of the month he campaigns at 135-pounds for the second time in his career, having out-pointed Darleys Perez for the interim WBA lightweight belt in June, last year. Crawford, also unbeaten, puts his WBO belt on the line in a match-up where someone?s 0 has to go. For Gamboa, neither his perceived ring inactivity nor his comparative lightweight inexperience will be factors against Crawford. ?Logic says to carry a little more weight as you get older, so I?m comfortable fighting at this weight,? he said. ?I?m not only active when a fight presents itself. For me inactivity is when you are not training at all, but I?m always training.? Gamboa?s Cuban style is a contrast to the technical brilliance of Guillermo Rigondeaux, who is perhaps the only current active prizefighter who could rival Floyd Mayweather Jnr in defensive skill-level alone. However, Gamboa?s national background may serve him well against Crawford who, whilst not particularly defensively great, is an able counter-puncher with good timing. In the Cuba team, Gamboa will have had plentiful experience sparring against guys with fast hands, intuitive head movement and countering pop. ?Coming from Cuba, the guys were technical and had size, and I fought them a lot,? said Gamboa, 32. ?Me, I?ve perfected my strategy to fighting these type of fighters. I think this will be a counter-vs-counter match.? Having trained with Floyd Mayweather Snr, Gamboa has said that in camp the pair worked on ?defence and counter punching.? He said: ?I know I tend to put my hands down and we worked on that.? He added: ?[We’ve also worked on] general conditioning and working on specific objectives.? On the game-plan they intend to use against Crawford, Gamboa said: ?[We will] attack from the start, be on the defensive, and develop the fight from there. [The] objective is to get him to the middle range where I can use my speed.? Gifted athlete Gamboa may present Crawford opportunities to establish momentum should he pause for thought in the fight. Gamboa performs best when he fights on instinct, in merciless sixth-gear speed, yet even with such tactics Crawford has the potential to score big counters ? even if he takes a shellacking in the process. Where Crawford has a bigger advantage, is if Gamboa over-thinks his approach in the ring. Unless Floyd Mayweather Snr has succeeded in teaching an old dog new tricks, Gamboa has been guilty of becoming predictable when he attempts to box and be too clever, or cute. It is here when the initiative can be taken away from him ? but Crawford is not the type of man who will take the fight to the opponent, particularly when that opponent is of Gamboa calibre. ?I?ll give you the best of me every time I fight,? Gamboa promised. ?We will win.? Gamboa has drawn previous comparisons to Roy Jones Jr by previous promoters, probably in terms of athletic ability, his shooting-from-the-hip style and being prone to knockdowns (as Jones Jr was in his twilight). While such lauding seems hyperbolic, past opponents have likened Gamboa?s strength and punching power to Manny Pacquiao. A dangerous hybrid and, even though he continues to swim in waters only tested once before, that ability to hit will no doubt stay with him at lightweight ? watch out Crawford.
