Yuriorkis Gamboa is a Cuban professional boxer. As an amateur boxer Yuriorkis won the Olympic gold medal in the flyweight division at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He is also the featherweight champion of the WBA. His younger brother is also a professional boxer, Yoelvis Gamboa.
While training in Venezuela, Gamboa, along with fellow Cuban Odlanier Solis and Yan Barthelemy escaped from the camp and found their way to Colombia and finally to Germany, where they applied for visas to enter the United States. Before defecting, he confessed that he had sold his gold medal to support his family.
On September 11, 2010 Gamboa fought Orlando Salido to unify the WBA and IBF titles featherweight with the result that Gamboa won by unanimous decision. The referee Joe Cortez said Salido dropped Gamboa in the eighth assault, but replays clearly showed that Gamboa slipped. Gamboa knocked out Salido in round 12, but was docked two points for hitting Salido in the back of your head while Salido was down. With this victory, Gamboa became the first Cuban boxer to hold the IBF world title since the inception of the organization. |
