By Jason Kim: Unbeaten Cuban featherweight Yuriorkis Gamboa (11-0, 9 KOs) stopped Al Seeger (27-4, 21 KOs) in a sensational 1st round TKO last night at the Buffalo Bill’s Star Arena, in Primm, Nevada. After eating a lot of jabs for most of the round against the taller Seeger, Gamboa finally unloaded on him with a four-punching combination, first hurting him with a left to the midsection and then finishing him off with a right to the head which dropped Seeger, 28, to the canvas on his back. Referee Robert Byrd immediately stopped the fight at 2:30 of the 1st round with Seeger still flat on his back on the canvas.

If there were any doubts how well Gamboa would perform after his last disappointing performance in his last fight, they were soon erased as Gamboa hurt at the two minute mark with a powerful three-punch combination to the head. Previous to that, Seeger had been using his height and reach to keep the shorter Gamboa on the outside, using a stiff jab to pound away at him.

Occasionally, however, Gamboa would come inside and throw blazing fast shots to the head. Seeger, though, wanted none of Gamboa on the inside and would quickly try to tie him up in a clinch whenever he would stray too close. The referee warned Seeger for grabbing Gamboa’s arm and holding onto it at one point. It seemed that Seeger looked really out of sorts, as if he were afraid of Gamboa and using any tactic he could think of to try and slow down his aggressive attack.

Seeger fought best when he had Gamboa on the outside, where he was able to land some excellent jabs to the head. Using his jab alone, Seeger was able to keep Gamboa on the outside for the most part, unable to land as often as he usually does against the lower level opponents he’s been facing up till now. However, as Seeger attempted, once again, to grab Gamboa in a clinch, Gamboa landed four quick shots, hurting Seeger with a left to the body which caused him to drop his guard due to the pain of the shot, and then dropped him with a big right hand that he never saw coming.

Seeger fell downward, landing on his back, his head bouncing off the canvas like a basketball. There was no question that he wasn’t going to be able to get up from such a knockdown, and referee Robert Byrd immediately moved in and hated the fight at 2:30 of the 1st round.

The bout was hardly competitive for Seeger, who had lost two out of his last three fights going into the fight, was over-matched from the word go and wasn’t ever expected to be in the fight. It would have been nice to have seen what Gamboa could have done against a better featherweight, someone like Billy Dib, Jorge Linares or Chris John, rather than the fodder that he was in with last night. Gamboa needs to face opponents with better boxing ability than what he’s been facing, because other than his previous fight against Darling Jimenez, he’s facing far too easy competition.