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By Lyle Fitzsimmons - Nearly two decades later, it was déjà vu.
Through the first six minutes of Yuriorkis Gamboa’s Saturday night title defense with Jorge Solis at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, all I could think of as I watched him work was Roy Jones Jr.
The rock-hard physique. The virtuoso footwork. The precision punching.
The super-composed manner that made victory seem certain.
I saw Jones exhibit those exact characteristics from the 1988 Olympics through the bulk of a now 21-year pro career – especially during a spectacular eight-year stretch from James Toney to John Ruiz in which he was clearly the best fighter on the planet.
Gamboa displayed his own Olympic chops with a 2004 gold medal, and, through his first 19 fights for pay, had shown sporadic Jones-like qualities en route to joining the belt-holding set with a 12-round defeat of Orlando Salido last September in Las Vegas.
Saturday’s match with Solis was the 20th of his career, and were it not for a six-inch height difference and 50 or so pounds on the scale, I’d have sworn the Cuban export had been cloned directly from the Pensacola legend’s DNA at a similar point in 1992.
Back then, in the 20th fight of his career, Jones KO’d Percy Harris in four rounds to win the WBC’s Continental Americas super middleweight crown a few doors down the holiday season boardwalk at the Trump Taj Mahal. [Click Here To Read More]
Through the first six minutes of Yuriorkis Gamboa’s Saturday night title defense with Jorge Solis at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, all I could think of as I watched him work was Roy Jones Jr.
The rock-hard physique. The virtuoso footwork. The precision punching.
The super-composed manner that made victory seem certain.
I saw Jones exhibit those exact characteristics from the 1988 Olympics through the bulk of a now 21-year pro career – especially during a spectacular eight-year stretch from James Toney to John Ruiz in which he was clearly the best fighter on the planet.
Gamboa displayed his own Olympic chops with a 2004 gold medal, and, through his first 19 fights for pay, had shown sporadic Jones-like qualities en route to joining the belt-holding set with a 12-round defeat of Orlando Salido last September in Las Vegas.
Saturday’s match with Solis was the 20th of his career, and were it not for a six-inch height difference and 50 or so pounds on the scale, I’d have sworn the Cuban export had been cloned directly from the Pensacola legend’s DNA at a similar point in 1992.
Back then, in the 20th fight of his career, Jones KO’d Percy Harris in four rounds to win the WBC’s Continental Americas super middleweight crown a few doors down the holiday season boardwalk at the Trump Taj Mahal. [Click Here To Read More]
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