We have a Friday Night Fights this weekend in spirit if not name. Golden Boy brings us a Friday night ESPN2 card main evented by lightweights Yuriorkis Gamboa (26-1, 17 KOs) and Robinson Castellanos (23-12, 13 KOs). Don’t be fooled by that record, Castellanos can fight. Featherweights Abraham Lopez (22-0-1, 15 KOs) and Jesus M Rojas (24-1-2, 17 KOs) make up the co-featured bout of the night. This is a solid card that should serve as a quality appetizer to Saturday night’s big PPV.
Maybe Cuban defector Yuriorkis Gamboa hasn’t given us the pound for pound level career that we projected on him before he accomplished much at all as a pro fighter, but he has still had a really good run. From 2009 to 2011, Gamboa was pretty much untouchable at featherweight. His off balance, defensively irresponsible style would get him knocked down somewhat regularly in fights, but otherwise he didn’t really lose rounds. He was also a devastating puncher at 126, a threat to end anyone’s night in a sudden rapid burst of violence.
After 2011, however, everything changed. Poor decision making in terms of his promotional situation put Gamboa on the shelf far more than in the ring. In 2012 and 2013, Gamboa only fought once each year. In those two fights he also moved up in weight, first to junior lightweight in 2012 and to full lightweight a year later. June of 2014 saw Gamboa try to take on Terence Crawford, a big pound for pound level lightweight who has since moved up himself. Gamboa fought valiantly in the exciting contest, but ultimately he was dropped several times and finished in the ninth.
Gamboa has gone 3-0 since that night, but inactivity has continued to plague his career. He missed all of 2016, for example. Here, however, Gamboa is finally making a quick turn around from his most recent fight in March. Hopefully now that the Cuban slugger is signed with Golden Boy Promotions he will find more consistent fights.
Mexican Robinson Castellanos has largely taken the opposite path. It would be easy to look at his 12 losses and write him off in this contest, but it would be a mistake. He began his career as a Mexican club fighter, going 3-7 in his first ten fights. To emphasize his origins, two of Castellanos early bouts were KO losses to current elite fighters Orlando Salido and Mikey Garcia. Then suddenly the guy brought in to lose just started winning. His next ten saw a reversal of fortune, going 7-3, and suddenly the Mexican club fighter had at least turned into a journeyman with his 10-10 record. Since then the journeyman has blossomed into a contender. Robinson Castellanos is 13-2 in his last fifteen, including wins over former titlist Celestino Caballero, unbeaten prospect Ronny Rios, and former top contender Rocky Juarez.
Now with that said, just because we shouldn’t write Castellanos off completely does not mean that he is likely to win either. In his two recent losses he was stopped both by Rene Alvarado and, in his most recent fight, Oscar Escandon. Both Alvarado and Escandon are good fighters, but neither of them bring anywhere near the level of talent that Gamboa will bring Friday night. Furthermore, Gamboa’s number one weakness as a fighter is insisting on fighting as a tiny lightweight. Though this fight will indeed be contested at that weight, Robinson is unlikely to be able to exploit this as he himself is a featherweight. Yuriorkis Gamboa should win this fight by stoppage if he really chooses to, but Castellanos will be game and there to challenge the Cuban if he fights a lazy fight.
Californian featherweight prospect Abraham Lopez returns in the co-feature. You may remember Abraham from his slot on the HBO undercard of Vargas/Salido last June. There he met fellow unbeaten prospect Julian Ramirez. Lopez lost that fight, but the judges gave him the win anyway. Lopez took a step down in a December get well fight before this small step back up against Jesus M Rojas. Lopez better watch for headbutts in this bout as both of Lopez’s biggest fights, a matchup with unbeaten prospect Jorge Lara and a fight with Mexican legend Jorge Arce, ended prematurely due to cuts sustained from head clashes. Rojas is a pretty good, but beatable fighter that should accurately measure where Abraham can realistically go in the sport.
All in all this is a good throwback to Friday Night Fights. It is also scheduled to start early at 8 PM Eastern and the card will also be featured on WatchESPN.com. Early, pre-TV prelims begin at 7 PM on WatchESPN if you want to catch even more fights.
