By Barry Holbrook: WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney and challenger Yuriorkis Gamboa both weighed in at 135 pounds on Friday afternoon for their fight this Saturday night on DAZN on November 7th at the Seminole Hotel in Hollywood, Florida. Both guys looked ready to battle it out for Haney’s WBC 135-lb title.
(Photo credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing)
Haney (24-0, 15 KOs) says he wants to beat the 38-year-old Gamboa worse than he’s ever been beaten before, which could prove to be difficult. The former unified 126-pound champion Gamboa has lost to Terence Crawford and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.
Most boxing fans would agree that those two fighters would beat the still green 21-year-old Haney if they were to fight him right now. Maybe in three or four years, Haney would give Tank and Crawford problems, but not right now.
Gamboa doesn’t care that he’s an underdog
DAZN will be streaming the Haney vs. Gamboa card on Saturday night. The start time for the Haney-Gamboa card is at 7:00 p.m. ET.
“Each person can have their own opinion. They can say whatever they want,” Gamboa said moments after the weigh-in when asked about his thoughts on Haney being seen as the favorite.
“I always fight like I’ve always fought like a warrior and I’m going to come out victorious. My focus on this fight has been tremendous and my preparation for this fight has been awesome,” said Gamboa.
The 2004 Olympic gold medalist Gamboa could turn his career around with a victory over Haney. If nothing else, it would put Gamboa in position for a rematch with Haney, and that would give him a nice payday.
It’s likely that Haney’s promoters at Matchroom Boxing put in a rematch clause in the contract to make sure that Gamboa doesn’t slip away if he beats Devin on Saturday.
Gamboa would be better off snatching Haney’s WBC 135-lb title and then taking on Tank Davis on Showtime pay-per-view than he would in giving Devin a rematch. Unfortunately, it’s a given that Team Haney included a rematch clause.
Haney vowing to beat Gamboa decisively
“It motivated me. It gave me time to train harder and fully focus on this fight and I’m ready,” Haney said when asked how the pandemic has affected his training for the Gamboa match.
“It’s no different than any other fight. Every fight I go in and put on a great performance. There’s always pressure to outdo my last performance. I go in there with a lot of motivation to get the win, and not only get the win but I want to look good too.
“I want to go in there and really dominate,” Haney said. “I want to make a statement with this victory. I don’t only want to beat him. I want to beat him worse than he’s ever been beat before, and I want to show him I’m on a totally different level than anyone he’s ever been in the ring with,” said Haney.
It’s going to be difficult for Haney to top what Crawford and Tank Davis did in beating Gamboa. Without taking huge risks, Haney won’t be able to do a better job than what Tank and Crawford did in beating the Cuban great.
Filip Hrgovic vs. Rydell BookerÂ
In other fights on the card, heavyweight contender Filip Hrgovic (11-0, 9 KOs) weighed in at 242.6 lbs for his 10-round fight against journeyman Rydell Booker. For his part, Booker (26-3, 13 KOs) weighed in at 248 lbs. Booker was recently knocked out by Kubrat Pulev.
“You’re going to see a great performance (tomorrow night), before the knockout I need to outbox him, I will not just knock him out, I will outbox first, and show my boxing ability,” said Hrgovic.
Zhilei Zhang vs. Devin Vargas
2012 super heavyweight Olympian Zhilei Zhang weighed in at 259.6 for his 10-round bout against 2004 Olympian Devin Vargas. The always tough Vargas hit the scales at 233 lbs.