By Jason Kim: Yuriorkis Gamboa (21-0, 16 KO’s) says he’s done with the featherweight division and will be moving up in weight to chase Manny Pacquiao after Gamboa’s listless 8th round technical decision last Saturday night against Daniel Ponce De Leon (41-4, 34 KO’s) at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Gamboa, 29, fought as if he was bored, rarely showing any energy and just looking to cruise to an easy victory. It was supposed to be an exciting fight when the fight was first put together, as De Leon is a huge puncher with a reputation for mixing it up with his opposition.

However, Gamboa was playing it safe from the beginning, as he chose to stay on the outside and use his quicker hands to peck away at Ponce De Leon round after round. The fight was stopped after a head clash in the 8th that resulted in De Leon being cut badly over his left eye.

It looked like a fairly long cut, but it’s unfortunate that the ringside doctor didn’t allow the fight to continue long so that De Leon’s cornerman could have worked on the cut. The fight was stopped much too quickly for my tastes. The judges scored it 80-72, 80-72 and 79-73. I agree with the last score. Gamboa dominated but didn’t win the first round.

After the fight, Gamboa said “It was important for me to fight more than three or four rounds…I wanted to enjoy my time in the ring and get some experience.”

With over 300 amateur fights, a gold medal in the Olympics and capturing world titles twice at featherweight, it sounds a little ridiculous that Gamboa is still looking to gain experience. I think he shot himself in the foot by fighting with so little energy. He needed to look impressive so that he could make a case for a fight against the likes of Manny Pacquiao, but he didn’t do that with this win that’s for sure.

“I’m done at 126. There’s nothing left for me to prove. I want to fight the best boxers in the world, living legends like Manny Pacquiao.”

I think Gamboa is moving up at the wrong time, because there is still Mikey Garcia at featherweight, Juan Manuel Lopez, Orlando Salido and Nonito Donaire will soon be moving up to the featherweight division. By moving to super featherweight, Gamboa is moving away from those big fights to a division that has few big names in the super featherweight division.

At that weight, there’s Adrien Broner and Roman Martinez. That’s about it. No big names. The big names are where Gamboa is moving away from. If he moves up to lightweight, then he can potentially take on fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez, Ricky Burns, Kevin Mitchell and Brandon Rios. However, a fight against Marquez might be tough to put together, and really other than him, only Rios is considered to be popular.

Gamboa would have to move up all the way to light welterweight and welterweight if he wants to really go after some big names. At 5’5″, I think he’s much too small to be fighting guys at that weight. He needs to forget about Pacquiao and just focus on doing well at lightweight or super featherweight. He’s more suited to those weight divisions.