Terence Crawford – Yuriorkis Gamboa possible for October 5th

By Boxing News - 07/11/2013 - Comments

gamboa545By Allan Fox: A fight between undefeated lightweights Terence Crawford (21-0, 16 KO’s) and Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) is in the works for October 5th, says Dan Rafael of ESPN. The idea is to have the Crawford-Gamboa fight as the co-feature on the proposed Miguel Cotto vs. Devlin Rodriguez card at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, the promoter for the 25-year-old Crawford, wants to put him in with Gamboa. Arum has spoken to Crawford’s promoter 50 Cent, and he in turn still needs to speak with Gamboa to see if he has any interest in taking this fight.

Arum said in an interview with Rafael “I’d like to make him [Crawford] with Gamboa.”

Just by showing interest in this fight, Arum may scare Gamboa off, because I’m sure he’s probably cautious about why Arum would want to match him against his highly hyped fighter Crawford. If there’s any self-doubt about his own ability, Gamboa might choose not to take the fight with Crawford if he thinks he’s being used as a stepping stone.

If you look at the guys that Gamboa has fought thus far since turning pro, he’s pretty much always walked into the fight as the guy that was favored to win. The one fight where things were closer to 50-50 against Brandon Rios last year, Gamboa backed out of the fight.

The Crawford-Gamboa fight would have to be considered a toss-up fight because Crawford has the size and the counter punching ability to make things difficult for the shorter Gamboa. Gamboa has fought only once at lightweight in beating Darleys Perez last June, and I think that might be enough of a reason for Gamboa to turn the fight down with Crawford. He’ll likely say that he doesn’t have enough experience at this weight to be taking on a fighter like Crawford.



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