~ The Yuriorkis Gamboa Bandwagon ~

Haha what a fight! I bet Gamboa made some fans last night - as well as enough non-believers to make a split in the fans – and it’s better than if he would've just blown Jimenez away...



My 2 cents:

As I've said before the fight, Jimenez is a big, strong and powerful puncher, a former amateur star and once a great pro prospect - just couldn't make it to the top – and he did turn out to be a very tough test for Yuri. He'd give a tough fight for every champ in the division today.

It was definitely a very dangerous learning lesson for Gamboa to work on that low guard and don't trust too much in his quick head and upper body movement (which is there, but he's now fighting much bigger guys than in the amateur days). Both the knockdown and the big shot that stunned him later could've been and should've been avoided. Jimenez, a very experienced fighter himself was able to counter with some flush shots and also landed some great shots going forward. Not enough though: I liked how Gamboa landed combos after combos, even in going backwards – his speed is truly a great weapon. But he didn't really care to land cleanly - he just wanted to finish off Jimenez and there was no plan B. Okay, that's what Gamboa is all about, but if you can’t blow him away, you have to adjust to the opponent, and Yuri still wanted to create excitement even in missing a lot. That's something he should get rid off. He's got the tools to do EVERYTHING, but he's overly excited (some would say he should never change that). But then again, this might've been the perfect lesson to make the necessarily adjustments.


Some extra thoughts:

- as I’ve said before the fight that Yuri’s chin, stamina and the ability to win rounds convincingly and box effectively are the big questions and this might be the perfect fight to answer. The chin is good IMO, it was a BIG shot landed on a KD area and still got up. But not a granite chin and you don't want to get the same kind of punches from Valero, JMM or PacMan - all great finishers. The stamina was excellent, in the 10th he still landed powerful combos and other than the KD and the round he got stunned he was winning round after round.

- it is now clear to me what I've said before: Gamboa MUST fight at FW. Simply put: Jimenez is a lightweight, he weighed-in as a LW, he's as strong physically as a LW and Gamboa, a FLYWEIGHT at the Olympics used to fight much smaller men than Jimenez. The SBW division might be too much to ask, but Gamboa definitely has to move down to 126 because he's gonna have trouble with guys with a longer reach (= every elite fighter at SFW). His defense is based upon the upper body and head movement, but these bigger guys can still catch him and Gamboa just don't want or simply can't use the textbook defensive techniques.

- Gamboa needs 4-5 more fights before fighting a world champion. Rojas, Juarez and 2 other experienced fighters should be enough – all big tests. He's already got the tools but he clearly needs to adapt to the pros a bit more, especially work on the defense, fight more patiently, have a good game plan (A, B) (I doubt he ever thinks about adapting to another fighter - he wants EVERYONE to fight his fight) - and if he can focus more on the defense and clean effective punching (using the jab more) instead of throwing wicked and extraordinary punches, he can be a world champion in no time.

- Hopfully after last night’s great fight there won't be Gamboa vs. JMM, Gamboa vs. PacMan, Gamboa vs. Khan, Gamboa vs. Guzman, Gamboa vs. Campbell threads anymore - he's still a prospect and it's still early for those fights. And forget about moving up in weight - in fact he needs to move DOWN. With the skill level he's on, he can start a very bright future in the FW division and move up later. 122, 126 and 130 are loaded with dozens of exciting HBO fighters and he should fight at 130 only after he put something down in a more natural weight for his body...

Great job Gamboa! :thumbsup

 

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Gamboa's new record:
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Just in case if anyone've missed it:

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You think that's long? How about Huki's take?

But it's always good to talk about developing prospects.
Even if you can summarize Gamboa's current weaknesses with one well-made GIF.

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Gamboa's new trainer named!

According to Per Ake Persson, ORLANDO CUELLAR will train Yuriorkis Gamboa from now on. Cuellar is the trainer of Glen Johnson and he's the man 'responsible' for Glen's wins over Jones and Tarver back in 2004, for he was nominated for trainer of the year. He was born in Cuba but moved to the USA at 3 and now trains fighters in Miami. A nice guy and IMO an excellent choice for Gamboa (however if I were Ahmet Öner, I'd try to move Yuri's training camps far away from Miami and the Cuban community - all Gamboa needs is 100% focus and I don't think he can get it in Florida).



A quote from Cuellar from 2005:

"When I look at a fighter, I don’t look to change them, I look to compliment what they already do, sharpen it and bring out the best in them. I believe that every fighter is unique in their style, like DNA. That’s how I train a fighter. If a guy is a brawler, I make him a slick brawler. If he’s a boxer I try to add a little bit of power and some defense. If a guy is a puncher I try to show him some speed to help get his hard shots in. You have to look at everybody as an individual and not try to mold everyone into what you think is the perfect mold of fighter. Everybody is unique, everyone is different, and everyone has a lot to offer if you can see it like a diamond in the rough, just tap into it and bring it out. You have to love your fighters and you have to believe in them."



Persson's info:

Arena´s Cuban sensation Yuriorkis Gamboa will now be trained by Orlando Cuellar. Arena have fired Osimir Fernandez, who trained Gamboa for the Jiminez fight this weekend. Yuriorkis trained in the Cuban parts of Miami for that fight and there were rumors of lot of out-of-camp disturbances even though Gamboa is said to be very disciplined. Next up is Venezuelan Jose Rojas June 27.



Arena confirms the hiring of Cuellar:

“I felt this was necessary”, explains Öner, “mainly because Gamboa didn’t seem to respect Fernandez. He was more like a ‘buddy type’. In addition to that Fernandez was an amateur coach who came from Cuba to work with Gamboa with barely any pro experience.” In Orlando Cuellar Öner already found a new trainer who seems to better fit his needs as he worked successfully with former world champion Glengoffe Johnson amongst others. “Cuellar has proved already that he can make champions”, says Öner. “I believe he’s the right man to take Gamboa all the way to the top. Gamboa doesn’t need to learn anything about boxing. He just needs to adjust his game a little and I think Cuellar will help him doing so.”

 

Also: Gamboa vs. JOSE ROJAS official!


The latest Arena Box-Promotion press release confirms, that Gamboa's next opponent will be former world title challenger Jose Rojas on ESPN2's June 27.

Rojas' only loss in 6 years is a UD defeat from FW world champion Chris John and he holds a KO win over SBW champion Celestino Caballero.

He's ranked #2 by the WBA at SFW. Since Gamboa is #3, this might turn out to be an eliminator, but the press release doesn't say anything about that, so we'll see...

 

Gamboa's hand injury is worse than we thought, June 27 card is officially off!



ESPN reports that Gamboa's next fight vs. Jose Rojas is now postponed to JULY 18's ESPN2 card due to the hand injury he suffered in the May 17 Darling Jimenez fight...

It's a very disappointing news... actually, the injury probably prevented him to land punches on Jimenez with full power (Yuri never made an excuse though), so he threw mostly less powerful and accurate arm punches... of course he didn't bring the KO everyone was expecting and the more punches he threw from the round he'd got injured it appears the worse it became...

So after several opponents had backed out in the past months, the last thing Gamboa needed in his fast-rising career was a sore hand and now he's got one... Hopefully his handlers giving him enough time to heal so he can resume his training with new maestro Orlando Cuellar 110% healthy... Like him or not, Gamboa's NOT fighting is bad for everyone...

 

According to Freddie Roach ( Gamboa and Manny Pacquiao sparred 4 very exciting rounds at the Wild Card Gym!

Man that's something I want to see! I demand a video footage of that, someone should sneak in and steal the tapes if it was captured at all!

BTW, Gamboa sparring with PacMan is a great news, it means Yuri's hands are fine... the latest news was that he's probably returning to 126 - which is excellent news. As long as he keeps focus and 100% dedication, he won't have weight problems since 126 is far north of his Olympic weight anyway.