Gamboa's speed too much for Garcia
Chris Farina/Top RankTouch and go: Yuriorkis Gamboa walked away with an easy victory against Whyber Garcia NEW YORK -- With blinding speed and equally impressive power, Yuriorkis Gamboa stopped Whyber Garcia in the fourth round to retain his featherweight title Saturday night at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden.
The fight was the co-featured fight on Top Rank's "Latin Fury 12: Island Warriors" card headlined by junior featherweight titlist Juan Manuel Lopez against Rogers Mtagwa -- and for a good reason.
Gamboa was featured on the card because Top Rank promoter Bob Arum hopes to eventually build toward a match between him and Lopez.
"A lot of people ask me if I want that fight and my straight answer is I want to prove I am the best in the world," Gamboa said through a translator. "Whoever thinks they are better than me, I want to fight them."
Said Ahmet Oner, Gamboa's co-promoter: "There have been discussions about fighting Juan Manuel Lopez. Why not? We'll take him."
Gamboa (16-0, 14 KOs) sure did his part to create some excitement ahead of that potential showdown.
The 27-year-old 2004 Cuban Olympic gold medalist -- who defected and turned pro in early 2007 -- simply overwhelmed Panama's Garcia, 28.
The speed advantage was devastating from the opening bell. He had Garcia in a defensive shell early on, but he finally cracked it.
"I think Garcia knew what he was walking into," Gamboa said.
During a flurry in the fourth round, Gamboa nailed Garcia with a left hook that sent him to the canvas face-first.
Garcia (22-7, 15 KOs) made it to his feet, but it was only a matter of time until the fight was over. Gamboa went after him and bulled him into the ropes, where he was landing shot after shot without anything coming back.
Finally, referee Steve Smoger had no choice but to stop the fight at 58 seconds of the fourth.
Gamboa was brutally effective in the final round, landing 25 of 37 power punches to force the stoppage.
Gamboa was making his first title defense. He stopped Jose Rojas in the 10th round April 17 to win a vacant interim title, but was later elevated to full titleholder by the WBA -- even though the organization also recognizes longtime titleholder Chris John as its so-called "super champion."
In Garcia's only other world title bout, Jorge Linares knocked him out in the fifth round of a junior lightweight title defense in November 2008.
• Heavyweight Odlanier Solis (15-0, 11 KOs) blew out faded former contender Monte Barrett (34-8, 20 KOs) in the second round.
The 2004 Cuban Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist came in at a career-heavy 271 pounds -- nine more than his previous high in his last fight -- and had a massive size advantage against the 218½-pound Barrett, a 38-year-old New Yorker who took the fight Wednesday.
Former title challenger Fres Oquendo was supposed to face Solis, but he had legal issues and a court appearance to make, so Barrett was brought in.
Solis, 29, crushed him. He dropped Barrett hard with a left hook a minute into the second round. Although Barrett survived, he was shaky and Solis went after him, pounding him to the canvas with an assortment of blows and causing referee Wayne Kelly to call it off without a count at 1:54.
Solis hopes to face a top contender in the near future.
"When I came into the professionals I was very experienced and felt like I could beat some of the top guys then," Solis said through a translator. "I was well-advanced and I think I am ready. A performance like this shows that."
Barrett lost his second in a row. He was knocked out in the fifth round by former cruiserweight champ David Haye in November 2008.
• In a brutal, bloody battle, junior middleweight Pawel Wolak (25-1, 17 KOs) and Brazil's Carlos Nascimento (24-2, 20 KOs) went toe to toe for five rounds until Nascimento retired on his stool after the round.
It was a rousing victory for Wolak, a native of Poland based in Mt. Arlington, N.J. He opened a bad cut over Nascimento's right eye in the first round, and both fighters were covered in blood by the time referee David Fields called off the fight on the advice of the ringside doctor at the end of the fifth round.
Wolak had a huge fourth round and had Nascimento ready to go, but the round came to an end. He continued his attack in the fifth, finally dropping Nascimento with a short left hand.
Nascimento survived but had nothing left by the time round ended. He saw his eight-fight winning streak end. He hadn't lost since being stopped in the 11th round by junior middleweight titlist Sergei Dzindziruk in Germany in 2007.
Duddy cruises on untelevised undercard
Middleweight John Duddy (27-1, 17 KOs), the New York-based Irish brawler with a custom of bleeding, was indeed dripping blood from his nose barely a minute into the first round, but it didn't stop him from cruising to an eight-round decision against Jorge "Michi" Munoz (21-4, 13 KOs), of Topeka, Kan.
Duddy peppered Munoz throughout the fight and was never in danger despite the bloody nose, winning 80-72 and 79-73 (twice).
Duddy, 30, had been considered as an opponent for middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik last year, but cuts and uneven performances cost him the shot. Then he suffered his first loss April 24, when Billy Lyell, a journeyman from Pavlik's hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, took a split decision against him.
For his comeback, Duddy split with trainer Pat Burns and reunited with Harry Keitt, who had trained Duddy from his fourth pro fight until mid-2007.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has designs on matching Duddy with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on a pay-per-view card next year in New York.
• Junior featherweight Jorge Diaz (10-0, 6 KOs), a Jersey City product with tremendous crowd support, gave the fans something to cheer as he put Yan Barthelemy (8-2, 1 KO) to sleep with a massive left hook at 1:07 of the sixth and final round.
Diaz is managed by Pat Lynch, the career-long manager of the late Arturo Gatti, and he showed a bit of Gatti's flair for the dramatic. Diaz also considered Gatti an idol and is trained by longtime Gatti assistant trainer Mikey Skowronski.
Barthelemy, a 2004 Cuban Olympic gold medalist who defected and turned pro in 2007, had Diaz in some trouble in the fourth round. But Diaz, like Gatti did so many times, turned it around. He was unloading combinations on Barthelemy in the sixth round when he suddenly caught him on the chin with the left hand. Barthelemy fell face-first to the canvas and was out, sending the crowd into a standing ovation.
• Cruiserweight prospect Carlos Negron (5-0, 4 KOs), a 21-year-old 2008 Puerto Rican Olympian with a huge 6-foot-6 frame but a skinny 180-pound body, was pushed the distance for the first time as a pro but easily won his four-rounder against Larry Pryor (4-5, 2 KOs). Negron took it to Pryor and was rewarded with scores of 40-36 and 39-37 (twice).
• Welterweight Omar Chavez (18-0-1, 13 KOs), son of Mexican icon Julio Cesar Chavez, took a lot of punches but easily outpointed James Ventry (7-10-1, 4 KOs) over six hard-fought rounds.
Chavez was aggressive from the outset and dropped Ventry with a clean left hook to the head midway through a dominant first round. Chavez couldn't muster another knockdown and Ventry landed numerous shots of his own to redden Chavez's face, but the judges had it wide for the 19-year-old. Two judges had it 58-55 and the third had it 59-54 for Chavez.
Chavez was fighting for the first time since tragedy struck in his previous fight. On July 18, Chavez knocked out Marco Antonio Nazareth in Mexico in the fourth round, and Nazareth later died from injuries suffered in the bout.
• In the first fight of the night, lightweight Martin Tucker (7-4, 3 KOs) upset Michael Torres (13-1, 7 KOs) in a six-round decision. Tucker dropped Torres twice and won 57-56 on all three scorecards.
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.
