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Yuriorkis Gamboa needed a win tonight in his late notice return to HBO, and he got one, however controversially. Gamboa was given a 10-round majority decision victory over Jason Sosa in a 130-pound fight.
Judges had the fight 94-94, 95-93, and 96-92, the latter two cards for Gamboa. BLH had the fight 95-93 and 96-92, both cards for Sosa.
Gamboa (28-2, 17 KO) came in with just a three-week training camp, replacing the injured Robinson Castellanos against Sosa (20-3-4, 15 KO). The 35-year-old Gamboa was nip and tuck with Sosa in the first half of the fight, but in the second half he appeared to badly (and, to be fair, understandably) fatigue.
Gamboa was down in the seventh round on a left hook to the top of the head, the 14th time in his professional career he’s suffered a knockdown.
.@JasonSosa4 scores a knockdown of @Gamboa in Round 7. #GamboaSosa pic.twitter.com/7i0zxCg8CN
— HBOboxing (@HBOboxing) November 26, 2017
He also had a point taken in the 10th round for holding, which came after referee Ron Lipton repeatedly — like, really, really, really repeatedly — warned him about his tactics, starting early in the contest.
It’s going to be a tough pill to swallow for Sosa, 29, who has now lost two straight fights.
CompuBox numbers were almost dead even, with Gamboa landing 129 of 450 (29%) total punches and 96 of 257 (37%) of his power shots. Sosa landed 132 of 399 (33%) of his total punches, and 103 of 307 (34%) of his power punches.