By Jim Dower: World Boxing Association interim featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (16-0, 14 KO’s) will be facing the tough Tanzanian Rogers Mtagwa (26-13-2, 18 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Madison Square Garden, New York, New York. Gamboa, 28, an unbeaten 2004 Olympic Golden Medalist for Cuba, will be facing the toughest opponent of his three year pro career against the durable and powerful Mtagwa.

Although Gamboa is heavily favored to win the fight because of his blazing hand speed and excellent pressure offense, Mtagwa, 30, may make it tougher than he would like it to be with his power and his constant pressure. Mtagwa is a lot better than his record suggests, and recently came close to defeating World Boxing Organization super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez in October.

Mtagwa ended up losing the fight by a 12 round decision, but he had Lopez badly hurt from the 10th round on, battering Lopez in both the 11th and 12th rounds. Somehow Lopez was able to last out the remainder of the fight and ultimately win by a decision, but Mtagwa had him on the verge of being stopped in both the 11th and 12th rounds with his power shots.

Mtagwa took a lot of punishment in rounds one through nine, however, and was dropped in the 5th round. But he never stopped coming forward and seemed to drain the fight out of Lopez with the high pace that he set in the bout. Mtagwa figures to do the same thing with Gamboa on Saturday night. The question here is whether Mtagwa’s strong chin will be able to hold under the pounding from the big shots from Gamboa.

While Mtagwa was able to take the shots from Lopez in his last fight, Gamboa figures to be a tougher task because he hits harder than Lopez and has better hand speed. Mtagwa has been stopped twice previously in his career against Valdemir Pereira and Orlando Salido. However, it’s been four long years since Mtagwa has been stopped, so it might not be as easy for Gamboa as it has been against his 16 previous opponents during his pro career.

Gamboa is one of the new stars in boxing, and he seems to be the real thing. However, the one weakness that Gamboa has shown is with his chin. He’s been put down a number of times already during his young career, even against non-punchers. Say what you will about Mtagwa not having the greatest of boxing skills, but he can punch and has a good chin.

If he can stay upright for nine or ten rounds against Gamboa, there’s a chance he could get to him late in the fight and make it interesting. The difference here is that Gamboa, if he sees that the knockout isn’t going to happen, will likely get on his bike and stay on the move in the later rounds of the fight like he did in his bout with Darling Jimenez in May 2008.

Gamboa was knocked down in the 4th round of that fight, and shortly after that he spent more time on the move and less on trying to slug it out with Jimenez. This might what Gamboa has to do if he has problems with trying to dent Mtagwa’s sturdy chin.