January 23
At New York (HBO): Steven Luevano vs. Juan Manuel Lopez, 12 rounds, for Luevano's WBO featherweight title; Yuriorkis Gamboa vs. Rogers Mtagwa, 12 rounds, for Gamboa's WBA "regular" featherweight title; John Duddy vs. Juan Astorga, 8 rounds, middleweights.

There is an outstanding card on HBO's Boxing After Dark (BAD) tonight, at 10 pm est. If you have an opportunity, be sure to watch it.

The main event features Steve Luevano defending his title against Juan Manuel Lopez. Luevano is a talented boxer, and should be able to give Lopez some trouble. However, Lopez is expected to win the fight.

In Lopez's last match, he was almost knocked out in the final two rounds by tough Rogers Mtagwa, who fights in the co-main event. Lopez, who is one of the sport's most impressive young fighters, had been impressive in overwhelming and knocking out almost every opponent he had faced. His bout with Mtagwa was supposed to set-up a late January bout with Yuriokis Gamboa, who meets Mtagwa tonight. However, Lopez had such a tough fight, that his management decided to give him a tune-up before meeting Gamboa.

Lopez is moving up from the junior featherweight class, to featherweight, for tonight's bout. Although it isn't a huge weight difference, it allows him the chance to get comfortable in Gamboa's weight class. However, Lopez can't afford to look past Luevano, who might lack Mtagwa's punching power, but has superior ring skills. It should be a tough, interesting fight.

The co-feature, between Gamboa and Mtagwa, is definitely the more anticipated bout. Most people believed that Mtagwa had earned a return bout with Lopez, though I understand exactly why Lopez's management refused to grant that fight. Gamboa's management has more confidence in their fighter, and believe that if Yuriorkis beats Mtagwa convincingly, it will give him a significant psychological edge when he faces Lopez in the late spring or early summer.

As always, styles make fights. It may well be that Gamboa will have an easier time with Mtagwa than Lopez did. He is a bit faster, and has superior reflexes. More, he has the advantage of studying Mtagwa's fight with Lopez. And finally, he has greater punching power than Lopez, and can definitely knock any featherweight unconscious with a single, well-timed blow.

However, Gamboa has poor balance, primarily from being a show-off in the ring, and being over-eager. He has solid defensive skills when he uses them, but has a bad habit of relying upon his uncanny reflexes too often, ignoring high-risk situations. Thus, he has been decked several times in his short career. It's one thing to get floored by an inferior opponent who you can punish for such a thing; it would be quite another thing to get hit by Mtagwa, and then have to defend against him.

Both Lopez and Gamboa face serious risks tonight. Without question, Gamboa faces the far more difficult task. Still, each should win. And, if they do, their proposed meeting will definitely be one of the very best fights of 2010. It actually would be worthy of being called a “Super Fight,” as both of these young sensations have the ability to become all-time great fighters. That's not something that I tend to say about anyone except the very best of boxers in any generation.

Enjoy these fights, and, if possible, let me know what you think of Lopez and Gamboa.