Gamboa Quits on His Stool in ESPN2-Televised Main Event

Former world champion Yuriorkis Gamboa was telling everybody he could throughout the week that he was about to embark on the next phase of his boxing career, one that would see him finally live up to the years of hype and expectations that came with him. With how things unfolded inside the Chelsea Ballroom at the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas on ESPN2, it’s going to take “El Ciclon de Guantanamo” quite some time to recover.

Unheralded Robinson Castellanos was brought in more as cannon fodder for Gamboa with expectations to send the boxing world into a frenzy the night before the massive “Canelo” Alvarez – Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fight on Saturday. A frenzy is what the boxing world is in, but not because of what Gamboa did inside the ring. Rather, for what he did on his stool.

Gamboa (26-2, 17 KOs) couldn’t avoid the Mexican’s right hand and was decked – and hurt - by it in the third and fourth rounds. Gamboa rose to his feet each time and even got his bearings back enough to box well for the next two rounds, but things unraveled in the seventh.

Castellanos (22-11, 13 KOs) turned his attack to the Cuban’s body as he ripped hooks and uppercuts to Gamboa’s midsection throughout the stanza. The punishment was apparently too much for Gamboa to handle and he quit on his stool in between rounds seven and eight.

In the co-main event, featherweight Jesus Rojas scored an upset of his own as he took out the favored Abraham Lopez in the eighth. Lopez (22-1-1, 15 KOs) was rocked and dropped in the second and then again in the fourth before being felled in the eighth. Lopez climbed back to his feet and tried to survive, but Rojas (25-1, 18 KOs) was all over him and forced referee Tony Weeks to intervene at 1:47 of the frame.

Yamaguchi Falcao (13-0, 6 KOs) won a dominant unanimous decision over fellow middleweight Morgan Fitch (18-1-1, 8 KOs). Falcao did virtually whatever he wanted and won every round en route to a 100-90 (thrice) score after 10 rounds.

Also, super lightweight Vergil Ortiz Jr. (5-0, 5 KOs) took out Angel Sarinana (7-6-2, 3 KOs) in the fourth. Ortiz Jr. pounded on him for three rounds and then finally knocked him down; ref Jack Reiss waived it off as soon as Sarinana got up.