Isaac Cruz vs Yuriorkis Gamboa Preview April 16th, 2022
Isaac Cruz of Mexico City returns to the ring this Saturday, April 16th when he takes on veteran Yuriorkis Gamboa of Cuba. The 10-round lightweight bout from Arlington, Texas can be seen live in America on Showtime Pay Per View on the undercard of the Errol Spence Jr vs Yordenis Ugas fight. Cruz last fought in December when he dropped an exciting 12-round unanimous decision to WBA Lightweight Champion Gervonta Davis. Gamboa last saw action in November, 2020 when he lost a unanimous decision WBC Lightweight belt holder Devin Haney.
Cruz vs Gamboa Betting Odds
Here are the betting odds from online sportsbook BetOnline.ag (full review here).
- Yuriorkis Gamboa +800
- Isaac Cruz -1600
My Pick
Cruz is just 23 years old and makes the ring walk with a record of 22-2-1 with 15 Kos to his name. He’s boxed 123 rounds since making his pro debut in 2015 and also has good power in his fists with a current knockout ratio of 60 per cent. He’s 5-feet-4-inches tall with a 63-inch wingspan and made a name for himself on the world stage with his dogged performance against Davis last year.
Cruz will be stepping up in class here again as his toughest opponents to date have been Davis as well as an aging Francisco Vargas and former world champ Diego Magdaleno, who he stopped in just 53 seconds in 2020. Cruz’s first pro defeat came at the hands of Luis Miguel Montano via an eight-round unanimous decision in February, 2016.
Gamboa is now 40 years old and will have some ring rust to battle through. He enters the ring with a mark of 30-4 with 18 Kos. His first career loss was a ninth-round TKO to Terence Crawford in a WBO World Lightweight Title fight in 2014. His second defeat was to Robinson Castellanos in 2017 when he was stopped after the seventh round and his third came to Gervonta Davis by 12th-round stoppage in December, 2019.
Although he’s on the downside of his career now, Gamboa still has has quick hands but usually doesn’t let them go nearly enough and has just two stoppages in his last 14 fights. Gamboa, who fights out of Miami, Florida, stands just over 5-feet-5-inches tall with a 65-inch reach which gives him a 1.5-inch height advantage on Cruz with a two-inch edge in reach.
Gamboa has boxed 219 rounds since turning pro and has somewhat underrated power with a current knockout ratio of 53 per cent. He had an excellent amateur career with 250 bouts and won a gold medal for Cuba as a flyweight at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. However, in some fans’ eyes Gamboa has sort of wasted his opportunity at an excellent pro career.
This is mainly due to his constant periods of inactivity. But even so, he’s held a featherweight world title and interim lightweight belt as a pro and has wins over Roman Martinez, Miguel Beltran, Orlando Salido, Daniel Ponce De Leon, Jorge Solis, and Jonathan Victor Barros. His chin let him down somewhat in his three of his losses but it’s also held up tremendously on other occasions.
Prediction…
The youthful Cruz is 17 years younger than Gamboa and has the edge in power and aggressiveness while Gamboa possesses the better boxing skills. Cruz is a workhorse though with a solid chin while Gamboa hasn’t fought for about 16 months. I’m expecting Cruz to have his hand held up in victory on Saturday night in what could very well be Gamboa’s swansong.
I think Cruz’s power and aggressiveness will be the deciding factor.
Play: Cruz -1600 @ BetOnline.ag
Check out my recent boxing betting picks to see my current form.
Isaac Cruz betting • Yuriorkis Gamboa betting
Even though Cruz showed some talent against Gervonta Davis I believe that if Gervonta has not hurt his hand he would have Knocked
out Cruz easily. I therefore feel that he will beat bamboa easily because of his age; however, Cruz ism Overrated and will lose to the
top fighters in his weight division n!! REC
That seems like a pretty good analysis of Cruz. He may fight the elites, but will likely fall just short of winning