Gamboa not worried about Terence Crawford’s technical skills

By Boxing News - 06/12/2014 - Comments

gamboa67(Photo credit: Rey Sanchez) By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF/WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) has no worries at all bout the technical skills of WBO featherweight champion Terence Crawford (23-0, 16 KO’s) for their fight this month on June 28th at the CenturyLink Center, in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. Gamboa, 32, grew up fighting nothing but technical fighters in Cuba and while fighting in the Olympics in 2004 in winning a gold medal for Cuba. Gamboa isn’t worried at all about what the 26-year-old Crawford brings to the table on June 28th.

“Coming from Cuba, the guys were technical and had size, and I fought them a lot. Me, I’ve perfected my strategy to fighting these type of fighters,” Gamboa said. “I think this will be a counter-vs-counter match. Objective is to get him to the middle range where I can use my speed.”

Gamboa, 5’5 ½”, will be giving up 2 ½ inches in height and 5 inches in reach to the 5’8” Crawford. However, he’s faster and stronger than Crawford is, and it’s quite possible that the reach advantage that Crawford has will be quickly negated in this fight by Gamboa. Crawford will need to figure out another strategy to try and beat Gamboa, because hanging on the outside will lead to Crawford getting hit with a lot of big pot shots that he’ll feel rather than see on June 28th.

Gamboa has been working with Floyd Mayweather Sr on his defense and counter punching in getting reach for this fight, and he’s put more of a focus on his defense for this one in order to prevent Crawford from being able to land his counter punches.

“We worked on defense and counter punching. I know I tend to put my hands down and we worked on that,” Gamboa said. “The game plan is to attack from the start, be on the defensive, and develop the fight from there.”

For Gamboa to win the fight, he’s going to need to go on the attack because Crawford is at his best when he’s the one setting the pace of the fight. In his last fight against Ricky Burns, Crawford had problems at times when Burns attacked him fiercely and brawling with him to get him in a situation where could no longer think and had to fight on instinct. Fighting at a faster pace didn’t suit Crawford at all, because his whole counter punching game broke apart and he was just a tall, thin fighter getting hit.

“At this point, we have nothing to lose. We fight whenever, where ever,” Gamboa said about fighting in Crawford’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. “We will have a great fight and I’ll give you the best of me every time I fight. We will win.”



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