CRAWFORD KO?S GAMBOA IN SPECTACULAR FASHION
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 29 Jun 2014
Some 10,943 cheering partisan fans who came to watch hometown hero Terence ?Bud? Crawford defend his WBO lightweight title against undefeated former Cuban Olympic gold medalist Yuriorkis Gamboa got what they wanted when Crawford scored a spectacular 9th round knockout in a fight telecast by ABS-CBN Sports and Action on Sunday noon, Manila Time.
It was the first world title fight in Omaha after 42 years and seated at ringside shadow boxing was another hometown favorite, local butcher Ron Stander who was stopped in the 5th round by heavyweight champion ?Smokin? Joe Frazier.
Veteran HBO Sports TV analyst described Crawford as an American star and his KO victory over the previously unbeaten three division world champion Gamboa ratified the comment.
The first four rounds according to commentators Col. Bob Sheridan and Merchant were close and they unofficially gave three of the four rounds to Gamboa who appeared to be quicker than Crawford and darted in and out to score.
The tide turned in round five when the lanky Crawford who enjoyed a height and reach advantage over the solidly-built Gamboa switched to a southpaw stance and dropped the Cuban star before hammering him with flurries the rest of the round.
As Gamboa appeared to go for broke in round eight, Crawford nailed him with a stunning counter combination to send Gamboa crashing to the canvas once again.
The game Gamboa stunned Crawford in the ninth round and had the American in trouble but unwilling to let his hometown fans down, Crawford fought back furiously ripping hooks to Gamboa?s head to drop him twice more in the round with referee Gino Rodriguez seeing enough at 2:53 of the 9th round as the fans at the CenturyLink Center went wild.
Hard-hitting Filipino southpaw Michael Farenas has shown Gamboa?s vulnerability to southpaws and power hitters when he dropped the world champion in round nine during a furious exchange fight but Gamboa who also dropped Farenas a couple of times proved too good in the end and won a unanimous twelve round decision.
In a post fight interview the 26 year old Crawford who improved to 24-0 with 17 knockouts, said he ?imagined everybody screaming, supporting me. It was everything I thought it was going to be. He caught me at the beginning of the 9th round with a good shot which got my attention and buzzed me a little. I hurt him plenty of times so when I hurt him the last time I was looking to finish.?
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