By Eric Thomas: In a very unimpressive performance former two-time featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (21-0, 16 KO’s) kept his undefeated record intact with an eight round technical decision victory over Daniel Ponce De Leon (41-4, 34 KO’s) at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The fight was halted in the 8th after a clash heads between the two fighters resulting in a large cut over the left eye of the 31-year-old De Leon. The ringside doctor then advised that the fight be halted at 1:24 of the round due to cut being too serious for the bout to continue.

At the time of the stoppage Gamboa, 29, was dominating the fight but not looking all that great with his one punch at a time attacks. Gamboa was landing the faster and harder shots to be sure. However, he wasn’t putting enough pressure on Ponce De Leon and seemed uncomfortable with Ponce De Leon’s awkward style. De Leon isn’t one of your more faster featherweights, and he missed a great deal of his shots.

But he was still landing often enough to make Gamboa hesitant to attack him for any sustained amount of time for fear of running into something big. De Leon fought at his best when he was hit hard by Gamboa, as he often went after the Cuban immediately to try and pay him back. De Leon appeared to win the fight round, although HBO ringside analyst Harold Lederman scored the first and every round for Gamboa overwhelmingly. It did look as if De Leon won at least the 1st round, with a lot of the rounds being somewhat close.

It wasn’t the kind of performance that would lead you to believe that Gamboa is ready for a bigger fight against someone like Manny Pacquiao, but that’s exactly who Gamboa said he wanted after the fight. The chances of that happening are extremely remote at this point because the tiny 5’5″ Gamboa looked even smaller than the 5’5″ De Leon in size, and his power had no affect on him. Against a bigger Pacquiao, it would be a mismatch and not a particularly interesting fight.

Gamboa is more of a pot shot type fighter rather than someone that attacks with any consistency. When interviewed after the fight by Max Kellerman from HBO, Kellerman suggested that Gamboa fight Mikey Garcia (26-0, 22 KO’s) next rather than Pacquiao. Gamboa seemed open to that fight. Gamboa is going to need wins over fighters like Garcia, Nonito Donaire, Juan Manuel Lopez and Orlando Salido to get Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum to take him serious. Right now, he’s just too small and isn’t putting his punches together to be worth the attention from Pacquiao and his people.