By Kenneth Friedman: Yuriorkis Gamboa has revealed that he suffered a torn Achilles tendon in the 2nd round of his fight last Saturday night against Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, and the injury kept him from putting his full weight on injured right leg. Gamboa says he wants a rematch with Davis, as soon as his torn Achilles is taken care of by a doctor.
(Photo credit; Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME)
With a torn Achilles, Gamboa could be out of action for a significant period of time. Assuming that Davis wants to give Gamboa a rematch, which he probably won’t, the fight would need to take place in the second half of 2020.
Subsequently, Davis (23-0, 22 KOs) took advantage of the injury to stop the 38-year-old former IBF/WBA featherweight champion Gamboa (30-3, 18 KOs) in the 12th round of their fight at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta. The vacant WBA World lightweight title was on the line for the fight, and that’s now in the possession of the 25-year-old Davis.
Gamboa: I couldn’t stand on my right leg after injuring it
“The heart of gold that I have and the heart of a lion,” said Gamboa to secondsout when asked what kept him going after he was knocked down in round 2. “He dropped me because I couldn’t stand right. My foot was broken. The second round, I had no support on that leg.
“My achilles is broken. I don’t feel he’s a bad boxer, but with all the stuff that happened when I went down,” said Gamboa. “I couldn’t box and had no way of supporting myself. There was no reason to stop the fight. I was fighting,” said Gamboa when asked if he was worried that the fight would be stopped due to his injury.
Gamboa showed a lot of courage in fighting for 10 rounds with a torn Achilles, because you don’t see stuff like that in boxing. He was literally dragging his right leg, and he was incapable of putting any weight on it when throwing shots. Not surprisingly Gamboa’s shots lacked power, but he couldn’t throw a lot either.
When Gamboa did throw shots, Davis would fire back, and that would force him to move to get out of the way of the punches. Gamboa couldn’t do that due to his injury, and he ended up taking a lot of shots that he normally wouldn’t have.
No retirement for Gamboa
Gamboa made it clear after the fight that he doesn’t intend on retiring from boxing. He wants to have his achilles taken care of, and then get back into training. Although Gamboa is 38, he’s a VERY young 38. He looks more like a fighter in his late 20s.
Gamboa didn’t look much older than Tank Davis last night, and that’s obviously a product of clean living for the talented Cuban and of course good genetics. Had the injury not occurred, Gamboa would have given Davis a tough fight.
Who knows who would have won the fight if Gamboa hadn’t been hurt. Davis looked tired in the second half of the fight, and he didn’t show anything that suggests that he would walkover a healthy Gamboa.
Yuriorkis wants rematch with Tank Davis
“I want in the future a second fight when I’m doing good,” said Gamboa. “I think it was pretty much a miracle that I went 10 rounds with a broken achilles, and I showed everybody that I’m well trained, and what I can do in the ring,” said Gamboa.
“My main concern is getting my foot taken care of with the doctors,” said Gamboa. “After that, I’m ready to get back into the ring to box and see what happens and if Davis wants to give me that second chance. If God permits everything to go good, we’ll see another fight,” said Gamboa.
It would be a good gesture on Mayweather Promotions’ part for them to set-up a rematch between Gamboa and Davis in 2020, but it’s not likely. They’re going to move on, and look to match Davis against one of the other fighters in the lightweight division.
Don’t expect Gervonta to be matched against any of the lions in the 135-lb division though, because Mayweather Promotions will likely continue to match him carefully. After last night’s performance by Davis, it’s even more reason for his handlers to continue to spoon feed him the softer variety of opponents. Davis likely would have lost had he fought Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez, Vasiliy Lomachenko or Ryan Garcia last night.
