By: Christopher Roche
On a night when Kimbo Slice collapsed worse than Alfonso Soriano in the post-season, Gary Shaw was spotted ringside in Temecula, California rooting on his other prize prospect, Cuban defector Yuriorkis Gamboa.
Gamboa, fresh off his last HBO performance where he was dropped by New Yorker Darling Jiminez, tasted the canvas tonight in the first round. HBO played off the knockdown of their prized prospect by claiming it was all caused by an elbow, but Gamboa clearly showed he might have a little glass in his beard.
Gamboa got back up and ate a hard left hook near the bell to make it a 10-8 round. In the second, Gamboa came out with reckless abandon, and he and Marcos Ramirez traded shots. Ramirez went down after an uppercut and what appeared to be a push in the back of the head. Ramirez took the eight count, but he went down again and took what amounted to a 9 1/4 count from the referee.
Ramirez was about to get back up, but the referee counted 9 and 10 quicker than when I played hide and seek with my brothers in grade school. Ramirez was officially counted out at 1:41 of the second round, and the 27 year-old Kansas City fighter dropped to 25-1, 16 KO’s. Gamboa, 26, moved to 12-0, 10 KO’s. The bout took place in the featherweight division.
Co-Feature
30 year-old Andrey Tsurkan took a ton of hard shots from Mexican tough guy Alfredo Angulo, on the way to a tenth round TKO. Tsurkan showed a solid left hook, but he was outworked by the 26 year-old Angulo.
Tsurkan showed a steady beard, and the HBO crew was clamoring for the fight to be stopped in the later rounds. The Doctor let the bout continue on, and Jim Lampley and Max Kellerman grew hysterical by comparing Tsurkan to Doo Koo Kim and Leavander Johnson.
The bout was eventually stopped at 2:27 of round ten, and Angulo moved to 14-0, 11 KO’s. Tsurkan fell to 26-4, 17 KO’s. The bout took place at 154 lbs.
In a bout for the WBC interim super welterweight championship, Sergio Martinez, 44-1-1, 24 KO’s, defeated Alex Bunema. The 33 year-old Martinez used his speed to dominate Bunema and force and eighth round stoppage. Bunema, also 33, fell to 30-6-2, 16 KO’s.