YURIORKIS GAMBOA vs ROGERS MTAGWA

Amateur stars don’t always live up to their potential when they turn professional. Cuba’s Yuriorkis Gamboa has shown flashes of brilliance but there have been disappointing nights, too. He has been dropped several times, mostly when caught off-balance, and he has seemed too easy to hit at times. Gamboa surprisingly was taken into the late stages by Roger “Speedy” Gonzalez but he has looked sensational in other fights, such as blowouts over Walter Estrada and Marcos Ramirez.

I get the impression that Gamboa is beginning to settle down to the pro game. He looked mature and powerful in his last fight when outclassing and stopping the veteran Whyber Garcia. On Saturday, Gamboa is featured on HBO in an interesting test when he defends his WBA featherweight title against Rogers Mtagwa, the tough and tenacious Philadelphia-based Tanzanian.

This is obviously a fight that Gamboa should win and he is deservedly a heavy favourite. The real intrigue is not in who wins - this seems a foregone conclusion - but whether Gamboa can stop Mtagwa.

No one needs reminding how Mtagwa pushed Juan Manuel Lopez to the limit in last October’s thrilling fight. In the last round it was touch-and-go whether Lopez would make it to the final bell.

What I have to wonder is whether weight-making took something out of Lopez, which I suspect may have been the case.

Mtagwa made a monumental effort to win that fight. Now he meets another unbeaten Hispanic hope, this time four pounds up, in the 126-pound division. As gamely and as well as Mtagwa fought against Lopez, he faces a near-impossible task against the faster, flashier and simply much more talented Gamboa.

There were signs that Mtagwa was beginning to wear down before he went in against Lopez. He was almost stopped by Tomas Villa before winning dramatically in the last round and he has been in numerous wars. The way he fought against Lopez was little short of a revelation. Can he get it all together and put forth a similar walk-through-everything type of fight against Gamboa? I rather think not.

Mtagwa will be aggressive and courageous and he will give his all, this we know, but I think that Gamboa will be hitting him with quick, sharp punches and I think that the punishment will begin to tell after about eight rounds. We have to respect Mtagwa but my feeling is that Gamboa is going to shine in this fight. Mtagwa won’t go easily, but I think that Gamboa can score an impressive stoppage win in about 10 rounds.

This preview was written away from base without access to all my research material.