Cuban-born and former Olympic gold medalist Yuriorkis Gamboa will put his WBA featherweight title on the line against Tanzanian, Rogers Mtagwa, on Jan. 23 in the WaMu Theater at New York's Madison Square Garden in a clash of 126-pounders.The 27-year-old Gamboa rose to 16-0 with the 14th knockout of his career on Oct. 10, when he stopped Whyber Garcia (22-7, 15 KOs) at the WaMu Theater.
Gamboa's stoppage of Garcia was sensational.
It began with a left-right combination that dropped the oncoming Garcia, face-first, on the canvas early in the round.
Although Garcia beat the count, Gamboa was right back on top of him.
Gamboa bombarded Garcia with approximately 20 or so unanswered punches before referee Steve Smoger stepped in to wave an end to their fight at 0:58 of the fourth.
The HBO-televised bout between Gamboa and Mtagwa will take place on the undercard of a main event featuring 28-year-old, southpaw, WBO 126-pound champion Steven Luevano (37-1-1, 15 KOs), making the sixth defense of his crown against Puerto Rican Juan Manuel Lopez (27-0, 24 KOs).
The 26-year-old Lopez is coming off of an Oct. 10 unanimous decision over Mtagwa (26-13-2, 18 KOs), against whom he hung on to win despite being virtually out on his feet in the 12th round of his WBO superbantamweight (122 pounds) title defense.
Lopez is rising in weight because he has had trouble remaining down at 122 pounds. "Part of the reason that he wore down against Rogers Matagwa," said Top Rank's Bob Arum, who promotes both Lopez and Gamboa.
"If Lopez and Gamboa are both successful, I'd like to have them meet each other in June," said Arum. "It will be in New York, and it would take place in Madison Square Garden on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day Parade."
Arum said that on Feb. 13 "The Filipino Flash," Nonito Donaire (22-1, 14 KOs), will put his 21-fight winning streak on the line when he defends his interim WBA super flyweight (115 pounds) crown against Gerson Guerrero (34-8, 26 KOs).
A 27-year-old resident of San Leandro, Calif., Donaire once scored a fifth-round knockout of Vic Darchinyan for the IBF flyweight (112 pounds) crown in July of 2007.
