By Elisinio Castillo
Editor's Note: BoxingScene.com has been advised that this incident was not recent, despite numerous claims by major outlets.
The details are very sketchy, but former world champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (25-1, 17 KOs) was involved in a brawl inside of a gym in Miami, Florida.
An heated argument broke out between Gamboa and an unknown individual, and things quickly got physical.
It appeared that the other individual threw the first punch, which ignited an all-out brawl between the two. Several bystanders eventually jumped in to break up the fight, and while they were being restrained Gamboa blasted his brawling buddy with a combination that appeared to put him down and possibly out.
Gamboa has been inactive since defeating Hylon Williams in December of 2015.
He was scheduled to fight South African Malcom Klassen (33-6-2, 17 KO's) on December 17 as part of the undercard to a big event in Réunion Island, which is a French department in the Indian Ocean. The card was headlined by Alfonso Blanco defending his WBA interim-middleweight belt against hometown hero Hassan N'Dam. And N'Dam scored one of the most crushing knockouts of the year when he blasted Blanco unconscious from a single punch in the first round.
The fight with Klassen fell apart on the morning of the fight. According to multiple reports by the local media, police raided Klassen's hotel room and the found the fighter, his trainer, and a nurse - with illegal performance enhancing drugs in their possession. Klassen and his trainer were arrested and taken into custody to face charges. Klassen and his team have denied the allegations of having PEDs, claiming they were only in possession of vitamins.
Gamboa was already facing a lot of tension during that fight week, after his trainer Ismael Salas bailed on him - when photos were posted on social media that showed Gamboa training in France with Pedro Diaz - who happened to be there by chance as he was training N'Dam for the main event.
When Salas saw the photos, he refused to work any further with Gamboa and left the Cuban boxer hanging in the wind.
"Ismael was very annoyed with me and sent me a very strong message, barring me from entering his gym in Las Vegas and saying that it was better that I stay with Pedro," Gamboa explained.
"I don't think that's fair to me. I have been alone out here and Pedro has been helping me to make the weight. Thanks to him I have been able to prepare myself these days. What could I do? Pedro had offered me his hand from one Cuban to another Cuban.'
"I'm sure that there will be very good things coming up in 2017, but I can not say anything else for now. This incident has been very unfortunate with Salas, who like me is from Guantanamo. We should be together above anything."