The Theater, Madison Square Garden, New York City - In a matchup of two former super featherweight champions, Yuriorkis Gamboa of Cuba, a 2004 Olympic gold medalist, took a majority decision from Jason Sosa that was derisively booed by the crowd. Gamboa (28-2) won 96-92 and 95-93 on two scorecards, with one judge having it 94-94.
Gamboa twice slipped to the canvas during the 10-round bout, and when Sosa was credited with a knockdown in the seventh round, it was from a punch that appeared to miss with the Cuban off-balance.
Gamboa was penalized a point in the final round for holding, and Sosa fell to 20-3-4 with his second straight defeat. He was beaten by WBO champion Vasyl Lomachenko in April.
After he contest was over, Gamboa explained that he felt a bit flat after taking the fight on short notice after Robinson Castellanos withdrew with injury.
Gamboa had a tough time making weight, but he made it. He believes that he would have looked a lot better with at least a full training camp or something close enough to it.
While the outcome was demand as controversial by many at ringside, Gamboa had no issue with the decision and felt that he practically swept the fight from start to finish - with only two rounds possibly not going his way.
"It was a good fight. I didn't have enough time to train. I only had three weeks. I didn't have time to get ready. I needed 2 or 3 more weeks to lose the weight correctly. Of course the decision was good. I think I won every round. Except for the knockdown and the point deduction," Gamboa said.
Also on the card, Russia's Bakhram Murtazaliev knocked out Carlos Galvan of Colombia in the fifth round of their super welterweight event. Murtazaliev is now 11-0 with nine knockouts. He dominated the first four rounds before dropping Galvan twice to finish matters. Galvan fell to 16-6-1.
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