By Ramon Matthews Jr: Former WBA/IBF Featherweight Champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0 16KO) is set to make his return to the ring after a year long absence at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska. Unfortunately, waiting in the opposite corner will be Omaha’s own Terrence Crawford (23-0 16KO) with the record and skills to match. Crawford will be making the first defense of his WBO Lightweight title in his first main event fight to be broadcast on HBO.
In Gamboa’s last two fight’s he has had what some boxing fans would consider to be sub par performances. In his first return from a 15 month layoff, he faced Michael Farenas in a bout where he was knocked down by a counter left in the 9th round and also suffered a cut but he rallied back to win. 6 months later he took on then unbeaten Darleys Perez for the WBA Interim Lightweight championship who he later knocked down and defeated by way of a unanimous decision.
At this stage of his career where he has become fairly inactive, Yuriorkis Gamboa is in need of a signature win over an elite and popular fighter like Mikey Garcia. Having fought only twice in since 2011, inactivity has taking alot of the steam off of his career. He cut through the featherweight division earning his biggest wins over Orlando Salido, Jorge Solis, and Ponce De Leon. Now in 2014, he is in need of what has eluded him the past and that is a big money fight against the biggest name and best credentials in his set division. The JuanMa Lopez-Gamboa fight failed to materialize, and Gamboa vs Brandon Rios also fell through the cracks.
He gets his opportunity to elevate himself back up into the spotlight against the hometown favorite Terence Crawford, who is a good fighter with potential but not yet elite in the first world title title fight in Omaha in over 40 years. The Cuban star needs to deliver big in this fight, or the Yuriorkis Gamboa show may get unplugged, and the good fights such as a fight against superstar Mikey Garcia disappear.
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