Gervonta Davis stops Yuriorkis Gamboa in strange affair

The lightweight title matchup between Gervonta Davis and Yuriorkis Gamboa was odd before the fight and got stranger after the opening bell.

Gervonta Davis and Yuriorkis Gamboa had a tumultuous and strange weigh-in leading up to their Dec. 28 WBA lightweight title fight, but the bout was even more bizarre.

At the weigh-in, Davis failed to make weight on his first attempt. He succeeded the second time around but started a row after pushing Gamboa. It set the tone for what was to come.

When Davis and Gamboa met in the ring, Davis’s skills blistered Gamboa from the opening bell to the very end. In round 1, Davis abused Gamboa with his left hand early and often. It was a trend that continued throughout the night.

Things got weird in round 2. Davis dropped Gamboa with a vicious left uppercut. Gamboa got up and made it to the end of the round, but he started to panic in the corner between rounds. As translated from an interpreter, Gamboa told his trainer, “I can’t walk. Something’s wrong with my leg.”

Initially, it looked like Gamboa’s right shoe tore, and it impeded his ability to plant on his foot. Two rounds later, his trainer taped the shoe, and his footing seemed better, but his boxing skills continued to lag behind Davis’s.

In round 8, Davis put Gamboa down for a second time with a swatting left hook. Once again, Gamboa made it to his feet and finished the round.

Davis’s energy level dipped in rounds 9, 10, and 11. He was quiet for the majority of those rounds until the final 10 seconds. When alerted by the 10-second warning, Davis would spring to life and throw a flurry. He looked good doing it but wasn’t consistent with his attacks throughout these rounds.

Davis was determined to stop Gamboa in the 12th and final round. He wouldn’t be denied.

Davis targeted Gamboa’s head with right hooks, left hooks and left uppercuts. Gamboa was routinely hurt and tried to hold on to Davis, but he couldn’t make the clinches last.

Finally, Davis wound up his left hand in a video game-like manner and connected a crushing blow to Gamboa’s jaw. He hit the canvas for the third and final time of the fight as referee Jack Reiss stopped the bout. Davis is now a two-division champion.

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After the match, Davis said of Gamboa, “I knew he [Gamboa] was different from any of the opponents I fought before.”

Despite the win, Davis wasn’t satisfied with his performance.

“I give myself a C-plus,” said Davis.

During his postfight interview, Gamboa revealed that there were bigger issues than his malfunctioning right shoe.

“I think I ruptured my Achilles tendon,” said Gamboa through an interpreter. “Before I fell in the second round, that’s when I hurt it.”

Davis got the win with an exciting knockout, but the bout was riddled with oddities before the fighting ever began. Davis is a legitimate talent, but there are still lingering questions regarding his maturity and explosiveness at the higher lightweight division. He has great power and ability, but an accumulation of strange events overshadowed them.