Newly unified featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gmaboa has been informed by the WBA that he has 120 days to face his mandatory challenger and fellow titlist Chris John.
Gamboa unified the WBA and IBf titles with a competitive decision win over a tough Orlando Salido last Saturday (September 11) on HBO’s Boxing After Dark. Chris John never lost his WBA belt, but has been kept out of the ring due to various injuries. The latest setback for the Indonesian boxer was a rib injury that happened in July while sparring for a bout with Fernando Saucedo. In order to allow Gamboa to fight for the belt, the WBA gave John a “champion in recess” status.
After defeating Salido, Gamboa expressed in the post-fight interview his hope to soon unify with Top Rank stablemate and WBO featherweight titleholder Juan Manuel Lopez, who faces Rafael Marquez on November 6. The WBA’s decision would delay a showdown between the two until mid-2011 unless Gamboa is willing to vacate his title. Also, negotiations for a Gamboa-John could prove troublesome due to Gamboa’s affiliation with Top Rank, and John’s promotional duties being handled by rival Golden Boy Promotions.
At press time, Top Rank has not commented on the WBA’s decision.
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Chris John has been a top featherweight for years and is a definite spoiler. He’s technically sound and very elusive. Unfortunately for him, his style is very boring which is why he hasn’t gotten much press despite holding wins over fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez and Rocky Juarez.
Normally, I’d see John as a highly dangerous opponent for Gamboa, who while exciting has shown vulnerability to counter shot knockdowns and difficulty adjusting strategies over the course of a fight. However, I’d favor him due to John being out of the ring for about a year and half by fight night. Gamboa’s tendency to start very fast leaves a high possibility that John could be caught cold early and blitzed.
If John did survive or has retained his pre-injury form, then the fight gets interesting. Outside of an early KO though, it’s very unlikely that Gamboa could look good against John (no one does). And after a decent outing against Salido, the last thing Top Rank wants is for their future star to look ordinary in successive fights, or possibly drop a decision to someone like John.
Bob Arum said last year he wanted the fbout between Gamboa and Lopez to “simmer” for a few more fights. It’s expected to take place in 2011, which means at most both young fighters have one more fight early that year before facing each other. The list of credible opponents aside from John is the WBC titlist Elio Rojas, and Celestino Caballero. The latter is a fighter that many believe can beat both Lopez and Gamboa, and in Gamboa’s case is face more dangerous that facing a rusty Chris John.
Something tells me whether Gamboa and Lopez face each other depends on how the latter looks in November against Rafael Marquez. Should Lopez blow him away, I think Arum decides to move forward with the big featherweight showdown instead of risking a loss or bad performance against someone like John.
Either way, both Lopez and Gamboa will have some good challenges in their immediate future.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 