Yuriorkis Gamboa vs. Alexis Reyes – Results

By Boxing News - 08/13/2017 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Former featherweight world champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (27-2, 17 KOs) defeated little known Alexis Reyes (15-3-1, 7 KOs) by a 10-round majority decision last Saturday night in a fight in the lightweight division at the International Arena in Cancun, Mexico.

The Cuban Gamboa had it tough when it came to the officiating. The referee twice deducted points from the 2004 Olympic gold medalist. Gamboa lost a point in round 5 for what appeared to be a spinning move he used. In round 8, Gamboa lost another point for a head-butt.

The judges scored the fight 95-94, 95-94 and 94-94. Boxing News 24 scored the fight 9 rounds to 1 in favor of Gamboa. The point deductions were hardly fair in this writer’s opinion. Gamboa wasn’t initiating the head-butts.

The two fighters attacking same time, but Reyes seemed to be playing to the referee by turning his back on Gamboa and grabbing at his head each time the two fighters would come together. It wasn’t Gamboa causing the head-butts. It was mutual. The Cuban Gamboa was the visiting fighter though.

Gamboa started slowly in the first couple of rounds, pacing himself and using pot shots to hit Reyes from the outside. It was a boxing contest in the first 3 rounds. Gamboa was picking off Reyes with shots, and focusing more on defense than he usually does. It almost looked like a completely different Gamboa than the one that I’d seen during his 28 fights. He seemed like he didn’t want to gas out like he did in his last fight against Robinson Castellanos on May 5. Gamboa lost that fight after gassing out and quitting after round 7. He was knocked down in rounds 3 and 4 by Castellanos.

Against Reyes last Saturday, Gamboa wasn’t going to let himself fade, as he made sure he fought at a slow pace.

The complexion of the fight changed in round 4 after the 22-year-old Reyes nailed Gamboa with a hard-right hand that seemed to wake him up. Gamboa got serious with Reyes at that point, and staggered him with a left hook to the head that sent the Mexican fighter falling against the ropes. Clearly the ropes had kept Reyes up, but the referee blew it by not calling it a knockdown. It should have been a knockdown. Shortly before the round ended, Gamboa hurt Reyes again in tagging him with a 4-punch combination to the head. Reyes looked like he was ready to go down. If there was more time remaining in the round, Gamboa would likely knocked Reyes out, because the Mexican fighter was hurt and defenseless.

The 5th round was controlled by Gamboa, who used fast foot movement to land nice shots from different angles. It was good stuff from Gamboa. However, the round was marred by two head-butts that occurred. Neither of them was caused solely by Gamboa. Both fighters came together and collided. It was Reyes who turned away each time and grabbed his head, as if to show that it wasn’t him that had any part in the head-butts. Gamboa looked at the referee each time, which he probably shouldn’t have done. After the second head-butt, Gamboa lost a point. It was sad because it wasn’t his fault. The fighters were coming to together and they collided. Gamboa didn’t turn it into a drama thing by milking it. Gamboa is an old school Cuban fighter, who doesn’t go into theatrics during head-butts. He just takes the pain without showing emotion and gets back to work.

In the 6th round, Gamboa was all over the ring, hitting the much slower Reyes from different angles, and completely befuddling him. Gamboa showed a nice jab that he was catching Reyes with repeatedly when he was coming forward. There was nothing Reyes could do to stop from getting hit by that shot, as he didn’t have the head movement to get out of the way of the shots. Gamboa did an excellent job of schooling Reyes in this round. The skill difference between the fighters was huge. Reyes looked like a good 2nd tier fighter, whereas Gamboa was clearly a world class level talent. There was a big difference between these two guys.

Gamboa slipped to the canvas twice in round 7 from what appeared to be wet canvas. The referee didn’t bother wiping off the canvas after Gamboa fell. Normally referees do that, but this one wasn’t into it or maybe didn’t know better. Gamboa moved well during the round, nailing Reyes with shots to the head. There was nothing close in this round. Gamboa did look like he was tiring though.

In round 8, another point deduction from Gamboa for a head-butt and once again it didn’t appear that he initiated. Gamboa fought well and dominated.

Gamboa should have closed the show in the 8th round to get Reyes out of there, but he looked like he was more interested in boxing him and getting in round. If this was Gamboa before his loss to Castellanos, I think he would gone all out for the knockout. But in this case, he looked like he wanted to get some rounds in and major sure he didn’t empty his tank needlessly trying for a knockout.

I was impressed by Gamboa. He fought well against a guy looked taller than him, and who was fighting at home in Mexico.

Gamboa was up against it in fighting in Reyes’ home country, and he was going to have a tough time no matter what. Gamboa looked in a lot better shape than he had for the Castellanos fight. The one thing that I noticed is Gamboa’s hand speed and power isn’t what it once was when he started his career in 2007. Gamboa isn’t as fast as he used to be, and his reflexes aren’t the same. He’s still a very good fighter though. I just don’t think Gamboa is good enough to beat most of the lightweight champions today. He’d have a puncher’s chance at WBA champion Jorge Linares and WBO champion Terry Flanagan. But I think he would lose to WBC belt holder Mikey Garcia and IBF champ Robert Easter Jr.

Those guys are too good for Gamboa at this point. If Gamboa could get back down to featherweight, his power would go a lot further, and he might have enough talent for him to win a world title in that weight class. I don’t think he can make that weight nowadays without stripping off muscle, which he doesn’t appear to want to do. He could make the weight if he lost some muscle weight, but it would likely hurt his chances of beating the champions in that division. Gamboa would have an excellent chance of defeating IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby if he could get a fight against him. Selby’s promoter Eddie Hearn probably wouldn’t have any interest in having him defend his title against a dangerous guy like Gamboa.