Arum Explains The Difference in Building Gamboa's Base

By Robert Morales

Yuriorkis Gamboa of Cuba has won an Olympic gold medal and two world titles as a pro in the featherweight division. But he vacated one and unceremoniously was stripped of another with little in the way of an explanation.

But he's still undefeated and figures to provide excitement next Saturday when he takes on former super bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce De Leon (41-3, 34 KOs) of Mexico in the main event at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City (on HBO).

Gamboa's promoter, Bob Arum, provided some excitement this week when asked the difference between building a Cuban fighter - Gamboa (20-0, 16 KOs) defected from Cuba - and a Mexican fighter.

Arum, in the game some

44 years and promoter of many Latino fighters, gave an answer only he could give.

"A Cuban fighter that has been through the Cuban program and has won a gold medal is more technically proficient than any fighter in the world," he said.

"The Cuban amateur boxing program is second to none and you know a Cuban fighter has been thoroughly schooled, so that's the plus."

In other words, that's the good news.

"On the negative side, the Cubans that live in the United States don't necessarily follow boxing," he said. "At the time of the Castro revolution, 72 percent of the Cubans were white. The Cubans that we have living in the United States are essentially white Cubans, middle class, upper middle class that left Cuba.

"Those people never had a particular interest in the sport of boxing. That's why you can't build a Cuban fighter specifically with a Cuban audience and you have to have them appeal to other ethnic groups. Cubans like Gamboa and (Erislandy) Lara and (Guillermo) Rigondeaux are tremendous fighters and you have to build them outside the Cuban base."

It's hard to argue with Arum, whose promotional work with Oscar De La Hoya - a Mexican American - was a stroke of genius.