Boxing News Boxing News
Perhaps the most exciting boxer in the sport was in action last night at Madison Square Garden’s Wamu Theater as Yuriorkis Gamboa defended his WBA featherweight title in thrilling fashion.
The lighting fast Cuban went to work early against sturdy Philadelphia based Tanzanian hard man Rogers Mtagwa, rattling the challenger with blazing left hooks in the first frame, including one that sent Mtagwa down at round’s end.
Mtagwa had no answers in the second, absorbing the champion’s fury and suffering two more knockdowns before referee Steve Smoger waved it off at 2:35.
“El Ciclon de Guantanamo” Gamboa sees his record to 17-0 (15) while brave but outgunned Mtagwa now stands at 26-14-2 (18).
Also on the bill, Puerto Rico’s Juan Manuel Lopez moved up to featherweight at five defenses of the WBO super bantam crown to challenge long reigning WBO 126 pound titlist Steven Luevano.
The sharp boxing Luevano took the early rounds as he maintained the distance needed to work his combinations effectively but Lopez worked hard to get closer.
That happened by the third and Luevano was unwillingly forced into the trenches. The Californian nailed the challenger with his best shots at point blank range but lacked the concussive power to keep Lopez off.
The much harder punching Lopez was winning the exchanges with the big-hearted Luevano trying to hang in there and the end came in the seventh after a sizzling combination from Lopez put the champion down at 0:44 of the frame.
Lopez, 28-0 (25), wins the WBO feather belt, ruining the sixth defense of Luevano, who falls to 37-2-1 (15).
