By Dan Ambrose: Miguel Cotto and former IBF/WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa are reportedly close to a deal for a fight on HBO, according to Fight News. Former four division world champion Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs), who now fights at junior middleweight, has been targeting a lot of smaller fighters lately to try and setup a fight for HBO in December.
Brandon Rios and Juan Manuel Marquez are two of the names that have previously been mentioned as possible opponents for the 35-year-old Cotto, and now we’ve got 34-year-old Gamboa. If the Cotto vs. Gamboa boxing match takes place, the 5’7” Cotto would be a lot bigger than the 5’5 ½” Gamboa, and a lot heavier as well.
Gamboa, who started his career as a featherweight in 2007, would likely weigh in the mid-140s for the fight, and would potentially be outweighed by close to 20 pounds by Cotto on fight night. It would be the equivalent of Cotto fighting Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Cotto looked much smaller than Canelo in their fight last November on HBO pay-per-view, which Cotto lost by a 12 round decision.
It’s unclear why Cotto is targeting smaller fighters to fight rather than the top dogs in the welterweight division in Jermall Charlo, Erislandy Lara, Demetrius Andrade, Julian Williams, Austin Trout, and Jermell Charlo. It’s looks strange for a fighter as accomplished as Cotto to move down in weight from middleweight to the 154lb division and to start targeting fighters from the welterweight and now lightweight division [135lbs].
Gamboa fights in the lightweight division nowadays, and he hasn’t been exactly the most active of fighters in the last two years. Gamboa fought just once in 2013 and 2015, and he hasn’t fought at all in 2016. Gamboa’s last fight was against Hylon Williams, who he struggled to beat by a 10 round unanimous decision last December. Gamboa looked rusty in that fight, and mainly looked good in the early rounds.
“I will agree to fight Cotto at 150, but I will come in at a strong 144-145. Now it’s up to Cotto…if he’s up for the challenge!” said Gamboa to fightnews.com.
Cotto is going to need to lockup a deal with Gamboa soon if he wants to be able to start building up the fight properly. There’s not much more time before December, and if he wants his fight on HBO PPV, then he’ll need time.
Gamboa won a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics for Cuba.