Gamboa vs Ponce de Leon: Fight Time, TV Schedule, Odds, and Staff Picks

Tonight's HBO main event pits a couple of the world's best featherweights, live from Atlantic City.

Fight time: 10:30 p.m. EDT (Undercard streaming live from 7 p.m. EDT on TopRank.com)

Location: Boardwalk Hall - Atlantic City, New Jersey

TV channel: HBO

Odds: Gamboa is a massive favorite, between -1100 and -1400 as of yesterday. Ponce de Leon has odds around +700. More on the odds here.

Staff Picks

Andrew Fruman

Too fast, too accurate and too powerful.  Yuriorkis Gamboa will beat Daniel Ponce de Leon to the punch every time, and when he does, he'll be doing serious damage.  If the fight goes more than 5 or 6 rounds, it will be a surprise.

Dave Oakes

I'm really looking forward to Gamboa vs Ponce de Leon, I can see their being fireworks from the opening bell. Both can hit and both can be hurt, the big difference comes in terms of ability. Gamboa is fast, has good footwork and puts together blistering combinations, Ponce de Leon walks forward with little style or control, he just throws big shot after big shot and hopes to hit the jackpot with one.

The fight could be over very quickly, Gamboa's ring intelligence should be enough for him to stay out of trouble and pick the advancing Ponce de Leon off until an opportunity arises for the knockout. It will get interesting if Ponce de Leon catches Gamboa clean, Gamboa's got off the floor to win before but has never faced anyone with the power of Ponce de Leon.

I think Gamboa is too quick, smart and classy for Ponce de Leon, I expect the Cuban to win inside four rounds.

Scott Christ

(More on this Fight: Bad Left Hook Radio for Sept. 9)

Gamboa has too much to his game for Ponce de Leon, a rugged, improved, and still limited fighter. While Ponce de Leon did do well earlier this year with the quick-handed Adrien Broner, I think we can all agree that Gamboa is currently on a different level than Broner, whose ring IQ isn't the same, and who is still a little immature, being 21 years old in that fight and all. Ponce de Leon has done better on defense the last couple of years, but I don't think his improvements are enough to deal with Gamboa's speed, accuracy, and excellent timing, all of which make his already good power great.

There are two ways this could go. If Gamboa isn't here to truly impress (we've seen it before), this could drag to a decision, which will be wide and will feature Gamboa looking like he's on autopilot at various points. More likely, he's going to totally overwhelm Ponce de Leon, and the fight might not last very long at all. It's just not a good style matchup for the Mexican.