Yuriorkis Gamboa Heading To 130, Lomachenko Down The Line?

By Steve Kim

The past couple of days Tony Gonzalez has been in contact with former world champion Yuriorkis Gamboa and according to the adviser, the talented Cuban will eventually be making his way down to the fertile junior lightweight division.

"He's conversed with me that his intention is to go ahead and do a tune-up fight sometime in the next couple months, then towards the end of the year set up a a fight with one of the bigger names at 130," said Gonzalez on Tuesday afternoon to BoxingScene.com.

"Before it was Rocky Martinez, obviously now (Vasyl) Lomachenko's coming into the mix. So I would say that the plan is still on course for him to do a quick tune-up against a worthy opponent, someone who will give us some work and later down the road where he can step up and face Lomachenko or someone else at 130."

Gamboa (25-1, 17 KO's), a former Olympic gold medal winner, last fought on December 19th where he out-pointed Hylon Williams over ten rounds. It's pretty clear that his days as a lightweight are over.

Gonzalez says,"I wouldn't say that they are resoundingly over but if it's a favorable match-up at 135, it's something he wouldn't shun - that's exactly word-for-word what he told me. I don't think he wants to get into the same situation he was caught up in with (Terence) Crawford where he was giving up too much weight."

Back in June of 2014, Gamboa was halted by Crawford in nine rounds for the WBO lightweight title.

"135 is now what he really has in mind,"continued Gonzalez. "His focus for 2016, early 2017 - and I wouldn't completely rule out 135 - for now is 130, that's what he wants to focus in on. There are fights to be made."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com