On June 28th, we find
ourselves with yet another great card of an action packed summer of boxing. Here
are the major players.
Terence Crawford 23-0(16 KO) vs Yuriorkis
Gamboa 23-0(16 KO)
Odds: Crawford -200 Gamboa +170
Years ago, we all would’ve
thought Yuriorkis Gamboa would be the biggest star out of all the Cuban
fighters coming up in boxing. In 2014, due to a myriad of issues between
promoters and bouts of inactivity, Gamboa is still fairly unknown to the
general public. With a win over undefeated champion, Terence Crawford, he has a
shot to vault himself into the limelight finally. Terence Crawford is a young (26
years of age) fighter who fought good competition coming up as a prospect and
finally became a champion earlier this year. Undefeated and looking to continue
his winning ways after beating Ricky Burns rather easily earlier this year to
win the WBO lightweight title over in England.
This is such a fight of
contrasting fighters. Crawford was a really good prospect in the amateurs, but Gamboa was great, winning Gold at the Olympics.
Crawford is 5’8” with a 70 inch reach, while Gamboa is 5’5” with a 65 inch
reach. (Eye Test Section) Crawford seems to be more composed and knows exactly
how he wants to fight at any given moment while Gamboa wants to box sometimes
and other times he wants to rush in and look the Cuban Pacquiao, and pays for
it sometimes. Oddly enough, they have the same record (23-0) and the same
amount of knockouts(16) with 0 losses, but their careers really are in a
different place.
What Crawford needs to do is stay
out of range for Gamboa. He’s the taller and longer fighter so he can afford to
keep him at a distance with his jab. I can’t see Gamboa winning a boxing match
with a guy who is as elusive and good a boxer as Terence Crawford is,
especially with the height and reach disadvantages. He’s gonna have to make
this an ugly fight. He has the speed and power to get inside and touch
Crawford. Both of these guys are dynamic fighters, with the slight edge going
to Gamboa in the speed and power departments. Both of these guys are the best
each other has faced at this point in their careers so I know we will get a
great fight on Saturday.
Crawford by Decision.
Matt Korobov 23-0(14 KO)
vs Jose Uzcategui 22-0(18 KO)
Odds: Korobov -485 Uzcategui +385
This is a pretty good matchup with
both men being undefeated and stepping up in class really. Normally you would
look at this as a typical boxer-puncher matchup but after further analysis, I
would say that isn’t exactly accurate.
Korobov is a really slick
southpaw. He’s just a good, well rounded boxer who can pretty much fight going
backwards or forwards. Really good speed and pretty solid power. You see all
the Eastern European fighters who are popular nowadays and isn’t exactly like the
Golovkin’s or Kovalev’s of the world. He’s more of a patient fighter whereas
Golovkin or Kovalev are always going(and getting) for the kill Watching this
guy makes me reminisce about what Dmitry Pirog(though Pirog was better
defensively) could have been if not for his back injury a couple years ago. Korobov
is 31 unfortunately so if he’s going to take that step then now is the time to
do so. After an illustrious amateur career, we would hope he could eventually match that level in the pros.
When you think of fighters from
South America, Latin America, etc you think of one dimensional brawler type
fighters, but when I watch Uzcategui I see a bit more than that. In his fight
with Rogelio “Porky” Medina he showed some ability to box and countered rather
well off the ropes. A lot of his offense came that way early in the fight. Now,
Medina isn’t some A-level fighter, but he was a tough test for a really young
up and coming prospect. Uzcategui is also a tall middleweight at 6’1” or 6’2”(can’t
find it listed) with solid hand speed.
His
lack of defense really may render all of that null and void, though.
With all that said its obvious
Korobov is the better fighter regardless of age and has fought the better
opposition. I think the way for Uzcategui to win is to fight how he did against
Medina and draw Korobov in, trying to land his counters. Korobov tends to wait
a bit sometimes and has a low output sometimes. If Uzcategui presses I think it’s
going to be an easier fight where he himself gets countered and outboxed for
most of the fight. For Korobov, I think he needs to keep his foot on the gas
pedal. He’s the faster and technically superior fighter. In his fight against
Derek Edwards he came out blazing and set the tone for the fight, eventually
stopping Edwards after a brutal beatdown for 9 rounds. I kinda feel like he may
come out the same way. Either way, I expect him to show off his complete skillset
on HBO and advance to a big championship fight very soon.
Korobov by Knockout
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