My trusted college Tim has already shared his adulation of the Cuban pug and has taken his rightful place as the driver of the Gamboa bandwagon.  While I too share his sentiments of Gamboa being the “next big thing” in this beautiful sport let us not forget that there are two other noteworthy prospects featured on the Saturday night’s telecast.  (more…)

So let’s jump right in, shall we?

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I am not exactly sure where I stand on Figueroa.  He fights with a lot of swagger and bravado but in my opinion has not been tested inside the ring to earn that right.  A quick glance of Figueroa’s resume shows no one of note other then maybe Ubaldo Hernandez who despite his unimpressive record has faced some stern competition.  (more…)

It’s “Yuriorkis Gamboa Week” at Ring Report, suckas! Put this in your eye socket:

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Here’s the thing: Gamboa’s such a complete package and exciting performer that he inspires gushing from a great many cynical boxing scribes and fans, albeit little of it so hyperbolic as the deliberate-over-the-topness of the headline. Today, out of perhaps a tinge of shame, I bring you the testimonials of others, so as to show you that I’m not alone. Sample, from Jake Donovan of Maxboxing.com: He calls Gamboa “boxing’s next big thing.”

In fact, I recommend reading that whole article. It breaks down Gamboa almost scouting report-like — how he can switch to southpaw, fight inside or outside, be patient, etc. — but also gives his neat-o back story, as a Cuban Olympic gold medalist to defector to a 130-pound prospect.

Now, on to a smattering of the others:

“No one can know for sure, his chin has yet to be vetted, but Yuriorkis Gamboa (9-0, 8 KO) so far looks like one of those ‘future of the whole damn sport’ type of guys.” — Cliff Rold, BoxingScene.com

Gamboa is “boxing’s savior.” — HBO boxing bulletin board

Gamboa and 135-pounder Amir Khan are “the two finest unbeaten prospects in world boxing right now in the eyes of many observers.” — James Slater, Eastsideboxing.com

“Perhaps the next legitimate p4p heir.” — Saddoboxing.com bulletin board, comparing his speed to that of Floyd Mayweather and Roy Jones, two “pound-for-pound” greats (current and former)

“This fight isn’t even over and I want to see him again!” — Nick Charles, television boxing commentator, exclaiming during Gamboa’s fight last year with Adailton De Jesus

HBO. Saturday night, 9:45.

Gamboa, a 130-pounder, may not end up being as good as any of the three boxers mentioned in the headline there. But stylistically, he resembles an amalgamation of them — Tyson’s fearless charges, Jones’ dangling left hand and sneaky power, Mayweather’s quickness and defensive reflexes.

And, hey, he may turn out to be truly special. He’s 9-0 in his pro career with eight knockouts, many of them blowouts of fighters that were supposed to test him. He’s done all of this in a little more than a year as a pro. His competition in his young career has a stellar 149-26-6 record, combined. Another deservedly celebrated prospect, Amir Khan — who has been advanced in competition too quickly for some tastes — fought opponents with a combined 106-96-10 record through nine fights, if that tells you something. Coming out of Cuban’s legendary amateur system, Gamboa has approximately 400 amateur fights under his belt.

The HBO card featuring Gamboa has a pair of other prospects who are also corking good fun to watch, and they’ll get some attention in this spot this week, too. But for me, Gamboa’s a little like the cult rock band I discovered and wanted to share with everyone. Sure, I’m not alone on the bandwagon. Sure, I could be making a huge mistake touting someone so new to the pro fight game, and my hyperbole may make me a hypocrite since I’ve been so hard on trainer Emmanuel Steward for over-hyping his boxers. But Gamboa hasn’t been tested yet, and he just looks light years ahead of everyone who was supposed to test him. Darling Jimenez is the latest supposed test to step up to the plate.

Watch what happened in Gamboa’s ESPN debut in February when he fought Jonnie Edwards, who not that long ago beat Eric Aiken, who went on to win a title belt. Gamboa made it look so, so, easy:

To be honest the fight itself was not one of your more scintillating contests.  Witter fought like, well he fought like Junior Witter which means unorthodox boxing and pot shots with a lot of holding.  Bradley while technically sound gets a bit sloppy in his outings falling in and never fully utilizing his superior hand speed.  Not to mention that the fight was filled with clinches, dirty tactics, and not much else and well you have yourself a very long twelve rounds.  (more…)

Saturday night Showtime will treat American fight fans with a rare glimpse of Witter in action as he defends his WBC title against one of America’s brightest prospects in Timothy Bradley.  (more…)

How right she has been so far.  In further Judah news it now appears that the semi-anticipated welterweight match-up between Zab Judah and Shane Mosley has been canceled after Judah reportedly slipped in his shower and put his hand through the glass door.  The incident required Judah to get 50 stiches and bared him from training for up to four weeks at the doctors request. 

Now it appears that a war or words has erupted between Jin Mosely, wife and manager of Shane, and one of Judah’s “handlers“. 

From the looks of it the fight will not be rescheduled which I guess would be more of a shame had it not been a PPV event.  You just don’t get stories like these in any other sport.