Tomorrow night sees an excellent card of World championship boxing at Madison Square Garden with co-main events for differing versions of the featherweight crown.
Excellent WBO featherweight champion Steven Luevano 37-1-1 (15) put his crown on
the line again super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez 27-0 (24).
Lopez is the rising star on the scene but would be foolish to look past the current champion. Luevano is a smooth fighter who does nothing exceptionally well. He has wins over current IBF featherweight champ Cristobal Cruz and has some other good names on his record. His one loss came to the useful Martin Honorio and his sole draw was 3 fights ago to Mario Santiago.
There has to be a degree of sympathy for Luevano, who is a good champion but has struggled for recognition and is basically being offered the part of sacrificial lamb in the promotion. As for Lopez, he recently had a scare in his last defence when fading against Rogers Mtagwa and suffered a torrid final round. Lopez blamed the rigours of weight making and will probably be stronger at featherweight.
Luevano has a chance in this fight but isn’t a particular strong or powerful fighter and I feel he will struggle to keep Lopez away from him enough to outbox him for long periods of the fight. Whether or not Lopez can stop Luevano will remain to be seen.
Cuban star Yuriorkis Gamboa 16-0 (14) also defends his featherweight crown on the
same card. Gamboa is champion as regarded by the WBA and defends his title against
the same Rogers Mtagwa 26-13-2 (18) who gave Lopez such a battle.
It will be interesting to see what tactics Gamboa employs in this battle. Will he look to use his speed and just simply outbox Mtagwa or will he go in and throw bombs?
The obvious reason for choosing Mtagwa as an opponent is for Gamboa to beat him with more ease than Lopez achieved thus adding more ammunition for a Gamboa- Lopez bout in the near future. I actually think Gamboa may take quite a cautious approach to the bout. Mtagwa is not a great boxer and generally fights at the same speed until his opponent starts to tire. Gamboa has not shown any stamina issues so far and I think he will beat Mtagwa quite easily although probably on points.
Some people have mentioned Gamboa has been decked several times which will give Mtagwa heart for the battle but I do not believe Gamboa has a bad chin as he recovers very quickly, in a manner reminiscent of Larry Holmes.
By JIMMY LAST (EDITOR)
