Gamboa could fight on Cotto-Margarito undercard if he beats Ponce De Leon on September 10th

By Boxing News - 07/26/2011 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: If Yuriorkis Gamboa (20-0, 16 KO’s) gets by Daniel Ponce De Leon (41-3, 34 KO’s) in their September 10th fight at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic city, New Jersey, Gamboa will possibly be fighting on the undercard of the December 3rd rematch between WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York.

Dan Rafael is reporting on his twitter about the Gamboa news, but there isn’t any word about who Gamboa would be facing in that fight. But if it’s anyone halfway decent, the Gamboa fight will likely far outshine the Cotto-Margarito fight in the main event because Margarito isn’t the same fighter he once was and the last fight where he looked any good was three years ago when he beat Cotto by an 11th round TKO.

Even Cotto doesn’t look to be the same fighter he was back then. With Margarito not able to punch with the power that he used to, and with him coming off of a serious eye injury sustained in his loss to Manny Pacquiao last year in November, the Cotto-Margarito is very likely to disappoint. But Gamboa is the real exciting fighter on this card if he makes it.

Gamboa has blown away pretty much everyone he’s faced since turning pro in 2007 after capturing a gold medal for Cuba in the 2004 Olympics. Gamboa’s toughest fight thus far as a pro was against Orlando Salido last year in September. Gamboa was knocked down once in the fight and took a lot of hard shots from Salido, and being forced to box in order to get the win.

Ponce De Leon, 30, is coming off of a controversial 10 round decision loss to Adrien Broner in March. A lot of boxing fans think that De Leon should have won the fight, but I disagree. I had him losing but he definitely gave Broner a lot of problems with his power and aggressive fighting style.

However, De Leon doesn’t stand a chance against Gamboa and will lose the fight likely by an early knockout. De Leon has been mostly quiet since losing his World Boxing Organization super bantamweight title to Juan Manuel Lopez in a 1st round knockout loss in June 2008. De Leon has won seven of his last eight fights since then, and beaten some quality fighters like Orlando Cruz, Cornelius Lock, Antonio Escalante and Sergio Manuel Medina.



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