Gamboa not worried about Crawford’s height advantage

By Bill Phanco - 06/25/2014 - Comments

The 5’5 ½” Yuriokis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) will be giving up nearly 3 inches in height and 5 inches in reach this Saturday night in his fight against 5’8” WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford (23-0, 16 KO’s) at the CenturyLink Center, in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.

This fight is basically a featherweight vs. a light welterweight, because Gamboa’s best weight class was in the 126 pound division after he turned pro in 2008. Crawford has always been a big lightweight, and more of a light welterweight in size. In fact, Crawford said that he plans on moving up to the light welterweight division [140] after this fight.

“Just going back through my professional history, I’ve been pretty much the smaller guy in most of my fights,” Gamboa said today during a conference call. “So I really don’t think it’s something that’s going to affect much. I know how to adjust. I know how to come with a game plan and it’s something I’ve been dealing with ever since my amateur career. I’ve always been the smaller guy.”

Gamboa is going to need to get in close, and stay there as much as much as possible for him to win. He can’t let the taller Crawford use his longer arms to control the pace of the fight.

Crawford has looked vulnerable during his career in fights against Breidis Prescott, and at times against Ricky Burns. Crawford was getting beaten by Prescott in the early part of their fight last year in March, but he was able to take control of the fight in the 2nd half.

It was not a really interesting fight to watch, and the fans were booing loudly by the 6th round. Burns was able to fight well at times by pressuring Crawford in the second half, and forcing him to mix it up. When Burns was flurrying on Crawford, he was able to get him out of his technical game and make him look like an average fighter. Crawford isn’t exceptional when he’s forced to fight at a fast pace. His main thing is to fight slowly where he can think a lot.

“The guys he’s probably fought and seen, I’m pretty sure that they don’t have the same style as me,” Crawford said. “They probably have similar styles, but I don’t feel there’s anyone out there with the same, exact style as me, so we’re just going to see Saturday.”