By Scott Gilfoid: A fight between former IBF/WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) and current WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford (23-0, 16 KO’s) is in the works for either June 28th or July 12th, according to RingTV. Both fighters have agreed to the fight, which will be taking place in Crawford’s home city of Omaha, Nebraska.
Crawford, 26, just finished whipping WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns to take his WBO strap after beating him by a one-sided 12 round decision in front of Burns’ own fans in Glascow, Scotland last March. The fight was far too one-sided for there to be a rematch, even though Burns was talking about wanting to fight Crawford again. It was just too much of a mismatch for them to ask fans to see the two fighters go at it again.
The 5’5 1/2″ Gamboa, a 2004 Olympic gold medalist from Cuba, has the speed and power to give Crawford a lot of problems in this fight. Crawford, 5’8″, will have a two and a half height advantage and a huge five inch reach advantage over Gamboa in this fight. But Crawford hasn’t faced anyone with the kind of speed and explosive power that Gamboa has, and that could be a big problem for him in this fight.
The lightweight division is kind of barren of big names at the moment, and so it’s difficult for Crawford’s Top Rank promoters to find him talented opposition that can give him any kind of test. But with Gamboa, this potentially could be a very good fight if Gamboa hasn’t lost his skills due to inactivity. Gamboa last fought twice in the past two years for some reason, and there’s a lot of questions about whether his skills have eroded. Gamboa beat Darleys Perez last year in June of 2012 in winning an easy 12 round decision. In fight before that, Gamboa defeated Michael Farenas by a 12 round decision in 2012. Gamboa hasn’t been fighting a lot since 2011. He was fighting twice a year, but that dropped off in 2012 to him fighting just once per year due to him changing promoters.
A fight between Gamboa and Mikey Garcia was previously being talked about, but the money wasn’t right for the fight to go ahead. Gamboa would have been a good test for Mikey had that fight taken place.
Comments are closed.