Gamboa not worried about Crawford’s height advantage

Gamboa not worried about Crawford's height advantage

The 5’5 ½” Yuriokis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) will be giving up nearly 3 inches in height and 5 inches in reach this Saturday night in his fight against 5’8” WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford (23-0, 16 KO’s) at the CenturyLink Center, in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.

This fight is basically a featherweight vs. a light welterweight, because Gamboa’s best weight class was in the 126 pound division after he turned pro in 2008. Crawford has always been a big lightweight, and more of a light welterweight in size. In fact, Crawford said that he plans on moving up to the light welterweight division [140] after this fight.

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Yuriorkis Gamboa: time to deliver

Yuriorkis Gamboa: time to deliver

Go back a few years, to 2008 or 2009, and an unbeaten Cuban talent by the name of Yuriorkis Gamboa was on the lips of many a fight expert as a can’t-miss prospect of the hottest variety. The Olympic gold medallist and sensational all-round amateur standout who had defected from his homeland and set up base in Miami appeared to have it all: speed, power, balance, elegance and a killer instinct to match a peak Mike Tyson.

Back then, the only negative aimed at Gamboa was his somewhat leaky defence and his tendency to go down as a result. This only made the featherweight all the more exciting, however, and Gamboa always got back up and upon doing so took care of business. World titles and superstardom looked inevitable but – though the man dubbed “El Ciclon de Guantanamo” picked up a not so shabby three “world” titles at different weights (the WBA and IBF belts at feather, the interim WBA strap at super-feather-weight and interim WBA belt at lightweight) – somewhere along the way Gamboa all but fell off the radar.

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TOMORROW! Crawford vs Gamboa Tix Go On Sale at 11 A.M. ET

TOMORROW! Crawford vs Gamboa Tix Go On Sale at 11 A.M. ET

“This is what I always wanted to do, make my first world title defense in Omaha where I grew up,” said Crawford. “As soon as this fight was announced my phone and Facebook lit up. Everyone wants to be at this fight. This is extremely exciting, something I always dreamed about. Gamboa is fast and he hits with power. This is a serious fight. I fought and beat a lot of great fighters as an amateur.

” I was at 132 pounds then and Gamboa, as an amateur, was 112. But now we are about to go at it. I plan to train in Colorado Springs. During fight week, I will be away from the main fight hotel. It’ll be me and just my team to be by ourselves in the final days leading to the biggest fight of my life. It’s been a long ride to get here but at last my dream has come true. This will be a great action-packed fight.”

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Burns with little chance against Crawford tonight

Burns with little chance against Crawford tonight

Fans of WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2-1, 11 KO’s) might want to tune in tonight to see him defend his title against No.1 WBO Terence Crawford (22-0, 16 KO’s) because it will probably be the last time that Burns holds the WBO title, as he’s expected to lose and lose big in this fight at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Burns has the hometown advantage, but it’s not likely that the judges will give him the benefit of the doubt by saving him from another loss.

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Weigh-In Video – Burns vs. Crawford: Is the Rickster ripe for the pickings?

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The reeling Rickster hopes to rebound from the run of fights in which he’s struggled to look right. After passing the eye test Terence Crawford gets his first title opportunity versus two weight champion Ricky Burns.

Ricky Burns entered the world seen when a hardnosed body punching Roman Martinez from Puerto Rico was denied a win by the Scot who after a shaky start managed to dust himself off to earn a victory.

Having faced Martinez and Katsidis, Ricky has show he can deal with pressure fighters. In this fight it will be the first time he faces a guy like Terence Crawford who can box and come forward with a deeper layer of skill than say a past opponent such as Kevin Mitchell or Paulus Moses.

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Ricky Burns – Man of Steel

Ricky Burns - Man of Steel

The polysemic name of Matchroom’s Saturday bill in Glasgow, ‘Man of Steel’, refers to the titanium plate inserted into the jaw of Ricky Burns and, by extension, to the sheer toughness of his character exhibited through his perseverance to hear the final bell as he battled through ten rounds with a broken jaw, courtesy of Raymundo Beltran during their last September bout, and followed by the absolute determination to get back in the ring after the mending operation and healing.

Nobody need once again to point out the obvious that Burns was extremely fortunate to have retained his title against Beltran with the decision of a draw, but it is worth noting that the WBO appointed judges for Saturday’s defence against Crawford will have this in mind and are likely to score many of the potentially close rounds to the American in order to prevent any further stigma of controversy and/or accusations of ‘hometown favouritism’;

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Ricky Burns defends against Terence Crawford this Saturday, March 1st in Glasgow

Ricky Burns defends against Terence Crawford this Saturday, March 1st in Glasgow

We could be seeing the end of WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns’ time as a world champion when he defends his WBO 135 lb strap against his No.1 challenger American Terence Crawford (22-0, 16 KO’s) at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. While Burns has talked about having come up what he feels is the perfect plan to beat the 26-year-old Crawford, it just doesn’t seem all that likely that those plans will pan out for the 30-year-old Scotland born Burns.

Crawford has every advantage that you can think of in this fight against Burns, and the only thing that Burns has going for him is hometown advantage. Fighting at home seemed to save Burns from losing his last fight against Raymundo Beltran last September, as Burns was dominated thoroughly from start to finish in that fight but was still given a 12 round draw for his efforts. However, it’s highly unlikely that this fight will result in another controversial decision.

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Ricky Burns Is Preparing For War Against Terence Crawford On March 1

Ricky Burns Is Preparing For War Against Terence Crawford On March 1

When Ricky Burns climbs into the ring at the SECC in Glasgow on March 1 to defend his WBO lightweight title against unbeaten American challenger, Terence Crawford, he will be entitled to feel like a man returning to the scene of a crime he never committed but was convicted, tried, and found guilty of nonetheless.

The trials and tribulations that Burns endured in 2013 were more than staggering they were inhuman, even for a fighter as experienced as he is. Not once but twice he was forced to reach down into that place which resides in every human being but in normal people is buried so deep after years spent avoiding risk, danger, and hardship that they don’t even know it exists; and even if they did they would have no need of it anyway. It’s called the human spirit and from it is derived the will to endure unspeakable agony in the process of prevailing against seemingly insurmountable odds.

The German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, once wrote: “When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.”

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Ricky Burns: Crawford fight will be difficult for me

Ricky Burns: Crawford fight will be difficult for me

After two years as the WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2-1, 11 KO’s) may be reaching the end of the line as the champion after four title defenses. He dodged a bullet against Raymundo Beltran last September in being given a 12 round draw, and he lucked out in halting Jose Gonzalez last year in May in a fight that he was losing. However, Burns’ luck might be at an end when he faces the unbeaten Terence Crawford on March 1st at the Scottish Exhibition Center in Glasgow, Scotland.

Burns is a very good fighter and he’ll try every trick in the book in an effort to beat Crawford, but it might not be good enough. Burns appears to be overmatched in this fight, and he’s going to need to come up with the perfect fight strategy for him to come out ahead on March 1st.

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