(Photo Credit: Alex Menendez – HoganPhotos/Golden Boy Promotions) By Tim Fletcher: Fighting for the first time in over a year, former WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (25-1, 17 KOs) defeated Hylon Williams (16-2-1, 3 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York. The judges scored the fight 98-92, 98-92 and 96-94.
Gamboa, 34, dominated the entire fight and it is difficult to figure out what the judge was thinking who scored the fight 96-94. Like in most of Gamboa’s longer fights nowadays, he gassed out in the second half of the fight. He was still controlling the fight, but he definitely looked tired.
Williams was hurt in the 1st round from a hard right hand that Gamboa nailed him with. Gamboa was not able to finish him off though.
Before tonight’s fight, Gamboa had not fought since November of 2014. He has had promotional issues that have kept him out of the ring.
“It feels good to be back in the ring,” Gamboa said. “I trained in Cuba, and I feel that all the hard paid off. I was faster and stronger in the ring. I know I dominated the action tonight, I made sure he knew I was in control from the first round.”
Vyacheslav Shabranskyy defeats Yunieski Gonzalez
Undefeated light heavyweight Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (15-0, 12 KOs) stayed unbeaten with a grueling 10 round majority decision win over #8 WBC light heavyweight contender Yukieski Gonzalez (16-2, 12 KOs). The judges scored the fight 95-95, 97-93 and 98-92.
The scoring of the fight was all over the place and clearly favored the 28-year-old Ukrainian Shabranskyy. However, Gonzalez fought well enough to deserve a draw at least.
Gonzalez looked strong in the first eight rounds in walking Shabranskyy down and landing some vicious punches to the head and body. However, Shabranskyy came on strong in the last three rounds to land some big shots and get the victory. I thought the fight should have been ruled a draw, but Gonzalez has had bad luck lately with the scoring in his last two contests against Shabranskyy and Jean Pascal. Neither of these guys in the same class as the top 175lb fighters Sergey Kovalev, Adonis Stevenson or Artur Beterbiev in my view.
“I did know the fight was very close and should have been a draw in my opinion. I would like the opportunity to fight him again and prove that I am the better fighter,” Gonzalez said after the fight.
Gonzalez needed to put more pressure on Shabranskyy in the last half of the fight if he wanted to get the victory. Despite losing the fight, Gonzalez put in a great effort and made the fight an exciting one. Even if he didn’t win, Gonzalez put on a great show, as did Shabranskyy.
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