By Peter Wells: Puerto Rican fighter Juan Manuel Lopez has been criticized badly for moving up for featherweight to fight Steven Luevano instead of fighting the Super Bantamweight number #1 Celestino Caballero.
Lopez is the current World Boxing Organization Super Bantamweight champion while Caballero holds the WBA and IBF titles. Lopez has had plenty to say about Caballero, and he better prove his trash talk right by fighting Celestino next.
By Peter Wells: After Juan Manuel Lopez was exposed but not beaten by unknown challenger Rogers Mtagwa, he now takes on another unbeaten hotshot; Yuriorkis Gamboa. The Cuban has a lot of talent and hasn’t got a huge amount of time to make a name out of himself, but it taking the fast course to world glory, and maybe Mtagwa will be the last piece in the puzzle to get his hands on a world title.
World Boxing Association featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (16-0, 14 KO’s) defeated number #13 ranked WBA contender Whyber Garcia (22-7, 15 KO’s) by a 4th round stoppage on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, in New York, New York. Gamboa, 27, knocked Garcia down in the 4th round with a left-right combination that sent the 28-year-old Garcia down face first on the canvas.
By Jason Kim: This Friday night, World Boxing Council (WBC) light heavyweight champion Adrian Diaconu (26-0, 15 KO’s) will be defending his title against number #5 ranked challenger Jean Pascal (22-1, 15 KO’s) at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada. This will be the first defense for the 31-year-old Romanian transplant champion Diaconu, who now lives and fights out of Canada.
Photo by Tom Casino/Showtime – By Sam Gregory: The April 17th edition of ShoBox at Buffalo Bills Casino at Primm, Nevada features in the main event the 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist, 2009 Prospect of the year and WBA #3 contender Yuriorkis Gamboa, 14-0 (12), from Cuba residing in Miami who will take on #2 ranked Jose “Cheo” Rojas, 25-6-1 (17) of Caracas, Venezuela for the interim WBA featherweight title.
The first round started out a feeling out round than the shorter Gamboa soon stepped in landing his jab. Rojas was backed against the ropes; Gamboa landed a couple good jabs.
By Jim Dower: The Cuban amateur stars had a good time on Friday night beating their low quality opposition in the 1st round in a pair of fights shown on ESPN at the Buffalo Bill’s Star Arena, in Primm, Nevada. Light middleweight Erislandy Lara (4-0, 3 KOs), looked very impressive in stopping American Keith Gross (3-1, 1 KO) in the 1st round, needing only 69 seconds to take him out.
Yuriorkis Gamboa did it again. ARENA’s fast rising featherweight superstar scored his next impressive k.o. win stopping veteran Walter Estrada in only 35 seconds. “El Ciclon” lived up to his name simply blowing away his opponent with one of his overwhelming combinations. Gamboa went to the body with his left and followed up with a stunning right to the head that put Estrada straight to the campus.
By Eric Thomas: In a night of early knockouts due to poor matchmaking, featherweight Yuriorkis Gamboa (14-0, 12 KOs) destroyed destroyed Walter Estrada (35-9, 24 KOs) seconds into the fight, hitting him with a flurry of power shots ending with a big right hand to send him down for the count. It was no surprise, because Estrada had a poor record going into the fight and had been knocked out early in two of his last seven fights. In the end, he was simply too slow for Gamboa and looked as if he was fighting in slow motion next to the speedy Gamboa.
By Jim Dower: Undefeated Cuban featherweight Yuriorkis Gamboa (13-0, 11 KOs) sees action tonight against Colombian journeyman Walter Estrada (35-8, 24 KOs) in an eight-round bout at the University Center Arena, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Gamboa, 27, a former 2004 Olympic Gold medalist for Cuba, is one of the most exciting fighters in the featherweight division and all of boxing for that matter.
By Manuel Perez: in a stay busy fight, Cuban featherweight contender Yuriorkis Gamboa (13-0, 11 KOs) will take on journeyman Walter Estrada (35-8, 24 KOs) on February 20th in a scheduled 10-round bout at the University Center Arena, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.