Chris John Beats Daud Yordan in Indonesian Superfight; Gamboa Next?

"The Dragon" still breathes fire. Today in Jakarta, Chris John held off a game challenge from countryman Daud Yordan, winning on unanimous decision scores of 117-111, 116-112, and 116-112 in an entertaining battle.

The Jakarta Globe has the details:

Chris, 31, used nearly every trick in the book to defeat 23-year-old Daud, who did not back down from the champion but was clearly outclassed by the man known as "The Dragon." ... After the fourth round, it was all Chris. While Daud relied heavily on just one weapon — his punching power — Chris used every trick in the book. His counterpunches were efficient, he moved well across the ring and he timed his attacks to take Daud off his rhythm. Chris was up to the challenge brought by Daud and was able to withstand the worst of Daud’s punches, allowing him to take the bout to the distance.

With the big shakeup in the featherweight division last night thanks to Orlando Salido's upset of Juan Manuel Lopez, I guess you could go ahead and keep arguing that John is the best featherweight in the world. I won't, but I guess someone will.

This could also be the final step to Chris John fighting Yuriorkis Gamboa, which would pit, either way you order them, the #1 and #2 featherweights in the game today. Word was from Top Rank and Chris John representative Sampson Lewkowicz that if Gamboa won on 3/26 and John won on 4/17, the two would talk turkey for a big featherweight clash. That might have seemed disappointing 24 hours ago when THE featherweight fight was still Lopez-Gamboa, but now the best fight to be made is Gamboa-John, so hopefully they do get it done. John has been working with Golden Boy Promotions, but I don't think he's actually under contract with them, and I also don't think they have a fight for him at 126 that would get him back in the States, where isn't a draw anyway. Top Rank can make something happen, and given his long undefeated streak, Gamboa-John works as a changing of the guard-type showdown on paper.

John is now 45-0-2 (22 KO), while Yordan falls to 27-2 (21 KO).