TUCSON, AZ — Undefeated prospect Diego De La Hoya (17-0) will headline his first ESPN card tomorrow night when he takes on Erik Ruiz (16-6-1) at the Casino Del Sol. De La Hoya weighed in at 122 pounds and Ruiz slightly higher at 122.4. The card includes the co main event of D’Mitrius Ballard (17-0, 167.4 lbs.) taking on Adrian Luna (18-4-1, 167.8 lbs.) in super middleweight action, and a TV swing bout Hector Tanajara Jr. (8-0, 130 lbs.) facing Daniel Bastien (4-4, 130 lbs.).
It’s safe to say the window is closed for Yuriorkis Gamboa. The former featherweight titlist, who just signed with Golden Boy Promotions this year in hopes of rebuilding his career, was floored twice by underdog Robinson Castellanos in route to a seventh round corner stoppage.
Although sporting a 23-12 record, Castellanos was the more fundamentally sound fighter. Gamboa looked heavy, exhibited sloppy punch technique, and little of the speed that once made him a P4P talent. His flashy potshots couldn’t hurt the larger Castellanos, who began looking to the time the right hand by the end of the second.
The straight right hand would floor Gamboa late in the third. The counter came off a wide Gamboa left hook. The Cuban tasted the canvas again in the fourth, this time off a lead overhand right just 30 seconds into the round. Gamboa survived, but couldn’t find a rhythm to turn the fight around.
Castellanos would land three solid left hooks throughout the seventh, and a flurry of body shots when Gamboa attempted to hold at round’s end. It was not a bad beating, but the pace, coupled with Gamboa’s poor conditioning, made him decide to not come out for the eighth.
Hindsight is 20/20, but we now know Gamoba leaving Top Rank was the worst decision of his career. Since then, his activity has been wildly inconsistent. The 50 Cent signing made matters even worse. Now he’s 35 and his greatest asset, superb reflexes and speed, are completely gone. Golden Boy can’t even feed him to one of their prospects if he can’t even get past a journeyman-level talent like Castellanos.
I guess the timing is finally right to make Gamboa-JuanMa.
Starting at 3:45 p.m. ET, BeatsBoxingMayhem will stream the untelevised undercard of Canelo Alvarez vs. Liam Smith live from the AT&T Stadium at Arlington, Texas. Watch below.
ARLINGTON, TX — BeatsBoxingMayhem is bringing you a live stream of today’s weigh-in between Canelo Alvarez and WBO junior middleweight titlist Liam Smith. Also featured will be the undercard fighters Gabe Rosado, Willie Monroe, JoJo Diaz, Diego De La Hoya and more. The stream opens live at 3:30 p.m.
Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya and Canelo Alvarez have been the recipients of immense criticism since the latter vacated the WBC middleweight title to avoid facing mandatory challenger Gennady Golovkin. Fans who were tortured with a six-year delay for Mayweather-Pacquiao have felt deja-vu with Canelo showing no urgency to make what is unquestionably the biggest fight in boxing.
Today via his HBO blog series, De La Hoya disclosed Canelo’s one-year plan to “build” towards a Golovkin superfight in fall 2017. Phase one begins with Canelo taking WBO light middleweight titlist Liam Smith September 7 live on HBO pay-per-view.
What does Liam Smith provide in term of helping Canelo to get ready for a potential fight with GGG? As a promoter, what do you tell boxing fans that wanted to see Canelo-GGG instead of Canelo-Smith?
Well, first of all, Canelo takes every fight seriously and never looks past anyone. Liam Smith is an undefeated fighter, the WBO Junior Middleweight Champion of the world, has knocked out his last eight opponents and comes from an outstanding boxing family.
As of today, Canelo is a 154-lb fighter. He only fought for a Middleweight championship because fans wanted a fight with Miguel Cotto, and Canelo delivered by winning that fight convincingly.
I have been clear that Canelo will fight Golovkin at 160 pounds and we have a verbal agreement to do it in the fall of 2017. But in the meantime, Canelo is going to build up to being a true middleweight.
The plan is to face Smith – a big, bruising 154-pounder – in September, and if Canelo emerges victorious, to start making his way up to 160 pounds and fight Golovkin on equal turf (in terms of weight).
We envision Canelo doing a third fight in 2016 either at or close to the middleweight limit and then a fight on Cinco De Mayo at 160 before facing Golovkin in the fall.
I know Canelo/Golovkin is the biggest fight to make; the fighters know it’s the biggest fight to make; and the fans know it’s the biggest fight to make. Everyone agreed that a fight for the middleweight championship should take place at the middleweight limit and once Canelo builds up to that weight, the fight will be on.
In the meantime, we are hopeful and confident that Canelo will continue to perform at a level that has led to back-to-back knockouts of the year over James Kirkland and Amir Khan and when his body is ready, GGG should look out.
The HBO Sports special ROAD TO CANELO/SMITH debuts Saturday, September 10 at 12:45 a.m. (ET/PT) immediately following HBO World Championship Boxing.
LAS VEGAS — Canelo-Khan is being billed as the first boxing event at the T-Mobile Arena, but the actual first card there is tonight’s Golden Boy event on Estrellar TV headlined by Marvin Quintero (28-6, 24 KOs) taking on Petr Petrov (36-4-2, 16 KOs). Here is the card rundown and weigh-in results from yesterday.
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MARVIN QUINTERO: 136.2
PETR PETROV: 134
As this is billed as a lightweight bout, Quintero was 1.2 pounds and appears to have not tried to make the weight. Most jurisdictions allow for a +1 in pounds for non title contests. However, this is also being billed as an “NABF” title match, so Quintero will face a fine. He looked drawn so his lightweight days have come to an end. Petrov looked ripped and ready at 134.
Ismael AbduSalaam/BeatsBoxingMayhem
ALAN SANCHEZ: 147
PABLO CESAR CANO: 146.4
Ismael AbduSalaam/BeatsBoxingMayhem
ALEXIS ROCHA: 146
ABDEL VERA: 149
Ismael AbduSalaam/BeatsBoxingMayhem
HORACIO GARCIA: 121.8
ERIK RUIZ: 122.4 (initially missed weight at 123, made it an hour later)
Canelo-Khan fight week continues this Thursday with the final undercard press conference. On hand will be Glen Tapia, David Lemieux, Curtis Stevens, Patrick Teixeira, Mauricio Herrera and Frankie Gomez. You can stream the entire event below via Ring TV.
