Atlas picks Crawford to easily beat Gamboa tonight

gamboa#1By Dan Ambrose: In what could be a big jinx, ESPN commentator Teddy Atlas made his prediction of tonight’s clash between WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford (23-0, 16 KO’s) and Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) by picking Crawford to easily beat the 32-year-old Gamboa in their fight on HBO at the CenturyLink Center, in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.

“I like Terence Crawford. I like him to dominate,” Atlas said. “He’s the bigger guy; the naturally bigger guy, a natural lightweight. He’s good sized. Gamboa has been for the most part a featherweight. Gamboa hasn’t looked good in his last several fights. To me, there’s been a drop off in the performance of Gamboa. He just doesn’t look like the same confident fighter. He looks like a guy with an identity crisis.

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Weights: Crawford 134.8, Gamboa 134.4

gamboa11111By Dan Ambrose: WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford (23-0, 16 KO’s) and challenger Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) weighed in on Friday for their fight tomorrow night on HBO from the CenturyLink Center, in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. Crawford, 26, weighed in at 134.8 lbs. His opponent 32-year-old Gamboa came in at slightly less at 134.4 lbs.

Crawford looked good, and almost at fighting weight. He’s not someone who drains down to make weight like some fighters do. He says he plans on moving up in weight after this fight so he’s going to need to put on some weight so that he can compete with guys like Ruslan Provodnikov.

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Crawford vs. Gamboa weigh-in today at 4 P.M. ET / 1 P.M. PT

OMAHA, NEB. (June 27, 2014) — The Official Weigh-In for World Championship Boxing’s return to Omaha for the first time in 42 years, between undefeated world champions TERENCE CRAWFORD, the Pride of Omaha, and Cuban sensation YURIORKIS GAMBOA, will take place Today! Friday, June 27 in Grand Ballroom A at the the CenturyLink Center in Omaha (455 North 10th St., Omaha, Neb. 68102).

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Crawford has secret plan to use on Gamboa

crawford4422By Dan Ambrose: At the final press conference today between WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford (23-0, 16 KO’s) and Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s), Crawford looked like a giant next to the 5’5” Gamboa, and it’s hard to look at the two of them and see them as being in the same division. Crawford is talking about having some secret plan that he’s going to use to try and dominate Gamboa. It’s difficult to imagine what he’ll do besides holding him when he gets in close.

Gamboa has moved up in weight from the featherweight division after starting his pro career in 2007. As good as Gamboa is, he might be beaten on size alone on Saturday night unless he can crowd the tall, and skinny Crawford.

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Terence Crawford says he’s moving up to 140 after Gamboa fight

crawford655By Scott Gilfoid: In what surely will make promoter Eddie Hearn and his fighter former division world champion Ricky Burns happy, WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford (23-0, 16 KO’s) says that he’ll be fighting his last fight in the 135 pound division this Saturday night when he defends his title against Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) at the CenturyLink Center, in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.

This is a big deal potentially for Burns and Hearn, because if Burns has to fight an eliminator bout at WBC to get a shot at champion Omar Figueroa (23-0-1, 17 KO’s), Burns could well lose. I mean, if he has to fight a talent like #2 WBC Jorge Linares, I really can’t see Burns winning that fight.

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Yuriorkis Gamboa in need of a signature win

gamboa3423By 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.

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50 Cent: Top Rank isn’t protecting Crawford for Gamboa like Mikey Garcia

gamboa4(Photo credit: Rey Sanchez) By Dan Ambrose: 50 Cent, the promoter for former IBF/WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s), says that Top Rank Promotions was afraid of matching one of their most popular fighters Mikey Garcia up against Gamboa for fear that he’d lose the fight, and this in turn would hurt them. However, they don’t feel the same way about the less popular WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford (23-0, 16 KO’s), who Gamboa will be facing this Saturday night at the CenturyLink Center, in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.

50 Cent says that Crawford isn’t seen by Top Rank in the same way as Mikey Garcia. In other words, it’s less of a blow to them if Crawford gets beaten by Gamboa than it does with Garcia, who Top Rank is trying to turn into a PPV attraction. Crawford, as good as he is, is far, far away from ever becoming a PPV type fighter.

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Yuriorkis Gamboa vs. Terence Crawford this Saturday night on HBO from Omaha, Nebraska

gamboa4343By Allan Fox: This Saturday night, WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford (23-0, 16 KO’s) will be making his first title defense against unbeaten former IBF/WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) in what could prove to be the most difficult fight of the 26-year-old Crawford’s career when the two of them face each other at the CenturyLink Center, in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. The fight will be televised by HBO.

For Crawford, this will be his first fight in which he faces a guy with hand speed similar to his own, and with amateur experience greater than his own. Up until this fight, Crawford has been fighting guys that didn’t have the amateur pedigree that he came from, but in facing Gamboa, Crawford will be taking on a guy with an Olympic gold medal from the 2004 Olympics, and extensive fights at the amateur level.

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Gamboa not worried about Terence Crawford’s technical skills

gamboa67(Photo credit: Rey Sanchez) By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF/WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) has no worries at all bout the technical skills of WBO featherweight champion Terence Crawford (23-0, 16 KO’s) for their fight this month on June 28th at the CenturyLink Center, in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. Gamboa, 32, grew up fighting nothing but technical fighters in Cuba and while fighting in the Olympics in 2004 in winning a gold medal for Cuba. Gamboa isn’t worried at all about what the 26-year-old Crawford brings to the table on June 28th.

“Coming from Cuba, the guys were technical and had size, and I fought them a lot. Me, I’ve perfected my strategy to fighting these type of fighters,” Gamboa said. “I think this will be a counter-vs-counter match. Objective is to get him to the middle range where I can use my speed.”

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Terence Crawford vs. Yuriorkis Gamboa in the works for June 28th or July 12th in Omaha, Nebraska

gamboa434By Scott Gilfoid: A fight between former IBF/WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) and current WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford (23-0, 16 KO’s) is in the works for either June 28th or July 12th, according to RingTV. Both fighters have agreed to the fight, which will be taking place in Crawford’s home city of Omaha, Nebraska.

Crawford, 26, just finished whipping WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns to take his WBO strap after beating him by a one-sided 12 round decision in front of Burns’ own fans in Glascow, Scotland last March. The fight was far too one-sided for there to be a rematch, even though Burns was talking about wanting to fight Crawford again. It was just too much of a mismatch for them to ask fans to see the two fighters go at it again.

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