Golden Boy brought a one night only Friday Night Fights revival on ESPN2 headlined by Robinson Castellanos scoring a big upset in forcing the once great but even more promising Yuriorkis Gamboa to retire on his stool after seven. Three other Golden Boy prospects were also in action in what proved to be a quality card of exciting action.
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Yuriorkis Gamboa (26-2, 17 KOs) has had a very good career as a professional fighter, but it seems he will never reach that final level that his immense talent projected him to. Truly one of the most gifted fighters of this generation in terms of raw athleticism and power, questionable promotional decisions kept him out of action in his prime. When he returned as a full time fighter, further questionable decision making continued when the former Cuban amateur standout began campaigning at lightweight after never being big to begin with two weight classes down at featherweight.
Friday night in Vegas, time finished off what these poor decisions started years ago. Or maybe Robinson Castellanos (24-12, 14 KOs) did. Either way, Gamboa is done as a top fighter and maybe as a fighter altogether. Castellanos put forth his normal, quality professional outing and I do not mean to take the focus off his win, but Gamboa was largely defenseless to wide winging right hands and unable to come up with quality offense of his own in response. Wisely he quit on his own accord. Robinson Castellanos will rightfully be elevated by this win into bigger fights, but he probably won’t find them as easy as he did against the could of been legend.
On the undercard Abraham Lopez (22-1-1, 15 KOs) lost what I thought was an evenly matched step up bout against Jesus M Rojas (25-1, 18 KOs). I was wrong. The fight was not evenly matched. Though the previously unbeaten Lopez was game and landed plenty in return, he was unable to impact his stronger Puerto Rican opponent. Rojas was able to hurt Lopez whenever he landed, scoring three knockdowns before the bout was rightly stopped in the eighth following the third.
Opening the show, 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Yamaguchi Falcao (13-0, 6 KOs) of Brazil met fellow unbeaten middleweight Morgan Fitch (18-1-1,) and won easily by battering Fitch at will with long left hands from the southpaw stance. He was unable to seriously hurt his his bigger opponent, however, and may be lacking in the necessary power to compete with top middleweights. Falcao does seem like a very good athlete though.
All in all it was a fun night of fights and served well as the appetizer to tonight’s bigger Golden Boy card.
