Yuriorkis Gamboa Getting Closer: Review, Ratings Update

by Cliff Rold

The pre-fight report card referred to the rise of hyper talented Cuban Yuriorkis Gamboa (20-0, 16 KO) as a high wire act, “the viewing of Gamboa a marvel of wondering if he will perfect his craft and bring the whole package together or plummet finally to his doom.”

He sure as hell didn’t plummet. 

We’ll see, probably soon, how close to perfecting his game Gamboa has come.  Saturday night couldn’t have gone much better and, at the least, looked close to perfect.  Opponent Jorge Solis (40-3-2, 29 KO) was an underdog for a reason but he’s never been made to look flaccid as a professional. 

Gamboa went through Solis with the sort of speed and precision that couldn’t help but evoke memories of a young Roy Jones laying waste to the likes of Jorge Vaca and Percy Harris.  However, unlike Solis, Jones breezed through his early career with an ease Gamboa has not otherwise experienced. 

Gamboa’s talent is such that it can make previously displayed flaws be forgotten.  Would it be a bad idea to let Saturday’s performance make one forget?

Let’s go to the report cards.

Grades


Pre-Fight: Intangibles – Gamboa B; Solis C/Post: B+; B

Before dissecting the question, it’s enough to remark on how excellent Gamboa was.  Solis had been in with some tough guys over the years and once gave a spirited effort in a loss to Manny Pacquiao.  A combination of Solis being in some hard fights since the Pacquiao loss, and the possibility that Gamboa is, as just a raw athlete, a wee faster than the Featherweight version of Pacquiao, may have exacerbated an already wide gap in speed Saturday. 

Solis was never going to beat Gamboa to the punch.  What was surprising is how overwhelmed he was.  He never saw anything coming and couldn’t take what was landing almost at will.  Solis’s intangibles were far too harshly judged in the pre-fight report card.  His chin may have been vulnerable, but he showed in rising repeatedly how much hard he had.

Gamboa, as was pointed out by HBO’s Max Kellerman, seems to respond to measuring stick fights, to bigger moments.  It’s worth considering that maybe, after hundreds of amateur fights in Cuba, Gamboa gets bored with run of the mill professionals, that he needs extra motivation to bring out his best.  In that sense, performances like this one, and Rogers Mtagwa last year, exhibit the traits of a big stage gamer.

The observation could be an illusion too.  Solis, and Mtagwa last year, were made to order. Sure, Solis had been in and competed with Pacquiao; Mtagwa to hell and back with potential Gamboa Featherweight rival Juan Manuel Lopez.  Beating those men quicker, worse, than Pacquiao or Lopez did, is nice.  It might not mean much though beyond sales points for Gamboa the business property. 

Gamboa needs to string together a series of these performances, against proven fare like Solis and better than that, before the fighter who can become distracted, who gets dropped when he should not, who gets too careless, can be considered behind him.  Saturday was a big step in the right direction.

It was only a step though.

Gamboa is ready for the best featherweight has to offer and in the Lopez’s, Chris John’s, Hokum Hasegawa’s, and Rafael Marquez’s of his class (and probably a class or two up the scale), fans will find out whether Gamboa is everything he looks like he can be or ever the roller coaster ride he’s been.

Either way, it’s going to be a damn fine piece of entertainment all along the way. 

Report Card Picks 2011: 7-1

Ratings Impact

Light Heavyweight: Inactive for a year and without a fight scheduled, Chris Henry slips out of the top ten.  He had been at seven.  Everyone below moves up and promising Ismayl Syllakh enters at ten.

Jr. Middleweight: There had been some who squeezed Cuba’s Erislandy Lara into the top ten already.  It was resisted here.  Friday’s draw with Carlos Molina was an indication of why.  Lara may yet go on to do great things in boxing but he hasn’t done them yet and is only just making the hard steps where talent and promise morph into more.  When more occurs, Lara will crack the top ten.

Jr. Lightweight:  Despite a nasty loss a division below, Jorge Solis remains in the two slot at 130 lbs.  Prior to the Gamboa fight, Solis was on a solid run at 130 and, given Jr. Lightweight’s lack of depth and his still assumed WBA interim belt status, he holds his place for now.

Featherweight: Mikey Garcia got some consideration for the top ten and could be in shortly.  Gamboa slides up a slot to third.  Gamboa’s statistics for the IBF belt are removed.  If the IBF ultimately rules he can keep their strap, it will be re-added to the ratings.

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Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel, the Yahoo Pound for Pound voting panel, and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com