THE VIEW'S BOXING REVIEW
JUNE
As Gamboa pressed seeking the required knock out he would need to secure for victory he was stunned by a right hand from Crawford. Now fully composed following his earlier scare Crawford would unleash a stunning left to the jaw of Gamboa sending him crashing to the canvas. He would rise and resume the contest for one last time before a devastating uppercut would force referee Genaro Rodriguez to wave the fight over seconds later. No doubt given the option Gamboa would have attempted to fight on but the referee was correct to call a halt as the final two knock downs were particularly heavy and they finally took the play away from Gamboa's brave challenge.
Crawford enjoyed the celebrations in front of his delighted home town admirers. Delivering his career best performance against his biggest challenge to date, which also happened to be a stunning spectacle live on HBO will see his stock as fighter soar through the roof. A return to his home town to fight later this year has already been confirmed by Bob Arum and a potential move to Light Welterwight has been touted for possibly next year . With the wealth of talent on offer at the 140lb limit and with Manny
decision over Venezuelan Jose Uzcategui (97-91, 97-91 and 96-92). Korobov who represented Russia at the 2008 Olympics floored Uzcategui twice in the seventh round on his way to victory and improved his record to 24-0, 14 KO.
Pacquiao mentioned as already being on the radar, the big fights and pay days are certainly on the horizon for the undefeated American.
Gamboa despite the defeat will come again, the excitement generated from the contest will ensure he has little trouble securing a big TV fight in the future. The combination of talent and vulnerability makes him a must see attraction and the fact he demonstrated such heart and desire to keep coming forward despite suffering multiple knock downs will secure him plenty of credit within the boxing fraternity. Whether his next bout will be at 135lbs still remains to be seen as a return to Featherweight or Super Featherweight will ensure he does not have to face the physical disadvantage he experienced against Crawford.
Gamboa would claim after the fight that he and Crawford
"were just two warriors in the ring trying to get the victory, and he (Crawford) won.",
a fitting sentiment for two boxers who gave their all in a great fight and who will both almost certainly go on to have successful nights in the future.
The chief support bout saw highly touted Florida based middleweight Matt Korobov score a unanimous
Knock downs aside this was an otherwise uneventful contest where the crowd periodically booed the long spells of low quality action. Both fighters suffered cuts due to their heads coming in to contact on a number of occasions. Although, replays did suggest Koborov's cut may have been caused by a punch despite the referee stating an accidental head butt was the cause.
Korobov has aspirations of meeting WBA Middlewight Champion Gennady Golovkin and if this fight comes to fruition he will certainly need to show improvements, particularly with regards to his head movement and punch output otherwise he could be in for a rude awakening from the knock out artist from Kazakhstan.
Photo Courtesy Of Chris Farina/Top Rank