Due to an undisclosed injury, recent junior lightweight title challenger Robinson Castellanos has had to withdraw from his upcoming HBO date with recent titlist Jason Sosa on the undercard of Sergey Kovalev’s upcoming return. Yuriorkis Gamboa has stepped in to fill the sport. Suddenly this is a much less compelling fight.
Last time out in April, Jason Sosa (20-2-4, 15 KOs) was battered around the ring by pound for pound elite Ukrainian Vasyl Lomachenko. There is no shame in losing to the best, however, and before that night Sosa had been a WBA titleholder following two good wins over Javier Fortuna and Stephen Smith. Sosa versus Castellanos was a really well matched fight as Castellanos had only just narrowly lost his title shot and had stunned Yuriorkis Gamboa the fight before.
The very same Yuriorkis Gamboa (27-2, 17 KOs) is stepping in here now following Castellanos’s withdrawal. The Cuban former star hasn’t looked good since his 2014 stoppage loss to Terence Crawford. Hopefully at the very least this fight forces the 35 year old back down to junior lightweight as Gamboa has stubbornly campaigned as an undersized lightweight through his entire downfall. Last fight, his first since the Castellanos stoppage loss, Gamboa narrowly edged a Mexican domestic level fighter in July by majority decision thanks to losing three points along the way. He didn’t look great there either.
This fight will take place on the November 25th HBO broadcast headlined by Sergey Kovalev and Vyacheslav Shabranskyy. Sullivan Barrera is also in action on the tripleheader.
