ESPN Boxing Broadcast: Friday Night Fights.Yuriorkis Gamboa VS Al SeegerDate: July 18, 2008Division: FeatherweightRounds Scheduled: 10Place: Buffalo Bill's Star Arena, Primm, Nevada, USAFighters:Yuriorkis Gamboa:Record:10-0-0 with 8 kayosHeight: 5'6Weight: 126 LBSAge: 26Hometown: Guantanamo, Cuba (Lives and trains in South Florida)*This man was an Olympic Gold Medalist for Cuba at Flyweight in 2004. He has what I'd call a lifetime's worth of amateur fight behind him. Joe Tessitore even says his amateur career may be the greatest of this generation. He lists his achievements including being a 4-time Cuban Amateur Champion. 2003 Pan-Am Games Gold Medalist at 112 lbs. And, of course, the 04 Gold medal as I mentioned. 230 wins against 15 losses in the amateurs all totaled. Gamboa defected from the Cuban National team and came to America. We're happy to have him. He's my pick for the next big boxing star. It may be early to say that but he did just utterly dominate a very solid opponent named Darling Jimenez this year. Al Seeger:Record: 27-3-0 with 21 kayosHeight: 5'8
Weight: 125.5 lbsAge: 28
Hometown: Savannah, Georgia, USA*Has posted wins against Eric Aiken and Cesar Figueroa. He hasn't been very active in the past few years and was knocked out in 2006 by Daniel Ponce de Leon. He took this fight on short notice of three days. Bad move. BE's round by round scoring and breakdown:Referee: Robert ByrdR1: for Gamboa: It will be a small breakdown tonight. Gamboa scores a fantastic knockout. It was brilliant and it put Seeger down hard. Head bouncing off of the canvas hard. Seeger tried to hold him and it ultimately set him up to be blinded for the shot that cracked him on the button. It's Seeger's third straight loss, two out of three coming by way of knock out. At least it was quick for Al. He was in against a cyclone. Hence Gamboa's nickname, El Ciclon de Guantánamo. Officially, it's a TKO for Gamboa. I think it would've been a KO but that's life.
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For those of us who have so excitedly followed the career of Al Seeger since before he turned professional, we have known that a lack of confidence is not one of Mr. Seeger’s characteristics, and his stepping into the ring with Yuriorkus Gamboa shows that to be true. Most commentators, although in all fairness, not Boxed Ears, blogging about the fight's results fail to mention that Mr. Seeger had a maximum 3-5 day notice of substitution for this fight. Al Seeger had absolutely no time to prepare mentally or physically for the boxing style that a Gamboa employs, or to study the videos. This was a last minute substitution when the scheduled boxer, Jose Rojas, backed out of the engagement. Should Al have even accepted this fight at the last moment begets a different and unrelated question. In my mind this makes Al Seeger even more courageous than he is, and has always been, throughout his boxing career. This superb boxer, perhaps not a household name to some boxing fans, but to those of us who have followed his career, we find Al Seeger to be a phenomenal athlete, and a world class boxer. His reach, his poetry of movement and his record of defeat by knockout of the majority of his prominent opponents speaks volumes for his talents. I would ask all who saw this bout, and who came away with the impression that Mr. Gamboa “blew away” Mr. Seeger, to go back and to review Al Seeger, both as an amateur, and as a professional. No one would be able to find anything to disqualify him from championship status during the course of his meritorious career. This Kid, as we New Yorkers affectionately refer to him, is poetry in motion. One merely needs to look at his long & powerful straight right hand, his lightning-quick ambidextrous left and right jabs, and especially, and above all, his movement, and where from nowhere, he unleashes a combination of shots against his opponents. Granted, the result of the Gamboa bout for Al has to be deeply disappointing. His fans pray that he was not injured, and that he will soon return to training after the required ‘down time’. Having followed this young boxer for a time, I am even more in awe of his courage and his strength, than I was prior to this bout. When I see his dignity and his commanding courage, I see a professional in the mold of the boxing greats. I wish Al Seeger much future success, and while I pray that he does nothing to compromise his health, I also desire that he not become discouraged. This is but one bout in an illustrious career, and even the greatest boxers have stumbled before again arising and continuing on to even greater glory. I sincerely believe that Mr. Seeger added to his already large fan base that night! Al Seeger has truly, in my humble opinion, snatched a victory out of the jaws of defeat! Mr. Gamboa may have won this particular fight, but even in the results of this night’s engagement, Al Seeger is still a champ to those of us who ardently follow and who love him.
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