The Real Mega Fight
Written by: Cain Bradley
This Saturday we will hopefully get a step closer to the real mega fight. I’m not even talking about Mayweather and Pacquaio. Two of the biggest, hungriest young prospects about. Between them they have 47 fights with 41 knockouts, 29 of which came in the first three rounds. Both are currently featherweight champions and are sure to come head to head soon.
The first is 28 year old Yuriorkis Gamboa. The Cuban was the 2004 Olympic gold medallist however being Cuban he couldn’t turn pro. Unwilling to end up like, Mario Kindelan, Felix Savon and other Cuban Legends who were only the best amateurs but never got to test their skills against the best in the world, Yuriorkis and Odlander Solis escaped a training camp in Venezuela and turned pro at the ripe old age of 25!
His potential opponent is Juan Manuel Lopez. The Puerto Rican 27 year old started boxing at 10. After a bit of success around north America he went to the 2004 Olympic games were he lost in the first round. Straight after the defeat he decided to turn pro having compiled an amateur record of 126-24. Even as an amateur he was a knockout specialist with 86% of his wins coming by way of knockout.
On the 7th June 2008 on the undercard of Gary Lockett’s shot against Kelly Pavlik, Juan Manuel Lopez unbeaten in 21 fights took on the WBO champion at the time, Daniel Ponce De Leon. The 5’7 southpaw had defended his WBO Latino Junior Featherweight title four times, and was fully deserving of his shot. Straight away in the first round he knocked De Leon twice and staggered him twice more before the ref stopped it 2:25 in the first round. His first defence was against former NABF featherweight Champion Cesar Figueroa. Once again it ended with a first round knockdown. JuanMa then signalled his intentions by saying “look forward to many years as a champion, not only at 122, but 126, 130, all the way up to 135. I want to be the first Puerto RIcan to win world titles in four weight divisions.”
His second defence was against former Super Bantam weight Champion Sergio Medina on the undercard of the Pacquaio – De La Hoya. Once again he knocked his opponent out in the first round. A month later Yuriorkis Gamboa with a record of 14-0 took on Jason Estrada. 35 seconds into the fight Yuriorkis threw a right hand which lifted Estrada off his feet. In April that year both would feature in world title fights. Yuriorkis Gamboa had his shot against 4 time world champion Jose Rojas. Yuriorkis was dominating knocking him down a few times along the way to a 10th round stoppage. His domination was shown on the scorecards with him only losing 1 round overall. A week later JuanMa took on Gerry Penalosa, a battle-hardened warrior that had never been stopped. However the young Puerto Rican overwhelmed him and Penalosa didn’t come out for the 10th round.
Then on the 10th of October they co-headlined the show. JuanMa had once again retained his titled before this fight. For his 5th defence he was against South Afrcian, Rogers Mtagwa. In a fast paced war, JuanMa narrowly retained his title. Yuriorkis was against Whyber Garcia. Once again he dominated the fight knocking Garcia out. After the fight he said “I want to prove I am the best in the world. Whoever thinks they are better than me, I want to fight them.” By putting them on the same card it built up a potential fight for the future and with Gamboa’s words ringing in his ears Lopez moved up to featherweight. He would take on champion and highly rated American Steven Luevano while Gamboa took on the man who just nearly defeated Lopez, Rogers Mtagwa. First in action was Yuriorkis Gamboa. Unlike JuanMa he managed to overpower Mtagwa straight away getting the fight stopped in the 2nd round. Lopez showed real quality moving up, dominating and stopping Luevano in 6. Since then Lopez has also knocked out Bernabe Concepcion.
This Saturday he takes on IBF featherweight champion Orlando Salido a wily veteran who could trouble Gamboa but the likelihood is Gamboa’s wrecking ball attacks will eventually get to him and stop him. Juan Manuel Lopez will take on Mexican legend, Rafael Marquez. Both opponents could win, however they go into the fights as underdogs. So assuming both win their fights is it time for Bob Arum to strike or does he build up the tension more. However Arum will probably try and get them on one card together in their final fight. Usually these fights are gimme’s. But to have this fight to be the Featherweight King and a pound for pound contender they need to unify the titles. So assuming they win these fights, Gamboa should take on Featherweight king Chris John. Meanwhile Juan Manuel Lopez should take on WBA champion Elio Rojas. This means between them they own the 4 major Featherweight belts. In the final build up fight you have one take on Jhonny Gonzalez, rated highly by all organizations. The other takes on Top Rank’s other top featherweight Mario Santiago. These 6 fights are winnable and by late 2011, early 2012 the real Mega fight can take place.
The fight would be Hagler-Hearns esque if it lasted that long. Juan Manuel Lopez is a heavy hitter. No question about it, but he is not average swing for the fences guy. He is a boxer-puncher with a sharp technique, good defence and accuracy. Being a southpaw the counter right hook is his best shot as he showed against Ponce De Leon when he sent him into another dimension. Gamboa is also a very hard hitter, but he like Lopez has good style. Gamboa however is the ultra-aggressor. He swarms an opponent and once he’s got you he has you. He will chase you around the ring with his lightning-fast feet.
So who would win? It’s a very hard pick em. Both fighters have been down in their career and got up and finished the opponent. Both are accurate, fast and powerful. How do you pick a winner. I for one know that if or when this happens I won’t be able to take my eyes off the screen.
