Live Blog:Three Fights on HBO

For your Saturday night boxing pleasure, HBO brings you three fights on their series called Boxing After Dark. We'll dissect them as they occur.

YURIORKIS GAMBOA VS. DARLING JIMENEZ, ALFREDO ANGULO VS. RICHAR GUTIERREZ AND JAMES KIRKLAND VS. EROMOSELE ALBERT are the three fights that we'll keep you up to date on.

Kirkland and Albert in the Junior Middleweight division will get it all started. Kirkland is unbeaten in 21 professional bouts and should get a good test from Albert. They will fight for the vacant NABO championship. Kirkland is a big puncher, while Albert has just 10 KO's among his 22 pro fights.

ROUND ONE: Kirkland has hurt Albert early and knocked him down. Albert looks very wobbly but is up and it will continue. Kirkland jumps right back on him and drops him again. This time Joe Cortez stops it immediately. So Kirkland has won again.

Originally he caught him with a short left and dropped him to really take control. We didn't get to see much of Kirkland tonight, the KO comes at 1:06 of round one, but what we saw was effective and impressive.

Next up is another Junior Middleweight bout between Alfredo Angulo, another unbeaten, versus Richar Gutierrez.

ROUND ONE: The better punches at the start of round one, have come from Gutierrez, but towards the latter stages of the round there seems to be more exchanges of punches. Still not sure that Gutierrez isn't winning those exchanges. But Angulo is finishing the round strong. Still I'll give the round to Gutierrez.

ROUND TWO: A slow start to round two, but about midway through round two, there is a big exchange at center ring. Angulo was strong there. He is getting to the body of Gutierrez as well. Angulo is the more aggressive of the two fighters right now. That round goes to Angulo.

ROUND THREE: Angulo continues to dig in with some combinations. He looks like he has settled well into this fight. Another good combination from Angulo. Angulo is throwing more punches and landing more. But Gutierrez is working as well and landing some as well. But Angulo is clearly landing the more effective punches right now. Round three in the books to Angulo.

ROUND FOUR: Angulo is still fighting at a tremendous pace as they start this round. Wonder how long they can keep this pace up? Angulo hasn't done anything to really hurt Gutierrez, but there does seem to be times where all the punches that Angulo is throwing bother him. Another good combo from Angulo, to complete another solid round.

ROUND FIVE: Gutierrez has hurt Angulo with a left hook to the chin and its early here in Round five. Let's see if he can work his way back. He was really hurt and it has clearly slowed him down. Middle of the round, Angulo has hurt him, Gutierrez is trying to hang on. A big right hand from Angulo and then some good combos to hurt him some more. But Gutierrez won't go down and Tony Weeks stops it. Angulo was just pounding away.

Angulo did a great job to come back from being bothered early in the round and get the TKO. A big right hand started it and when Gutierrez wouldn't go down, Weeks had no choice to stop it as he was getting pummeled.

The Cuban defector Yuriorkis Gamboa versus Darling Jiminez in the nightcap. We expect Gamboa to push the pace for all ten rounds of junior lightweight action, or as long as it lasts.

ROUND ONE: Tremendous hand speed from Gamboa exhibited to start the round. Fighters feeling each other out a little bit. But Gamboa gets busy towards the end of the round, but Jimenez hit him a few times. Gamboa is very impressive in the ring. Jimenez got caught and knocked off balance. Not sure he was really hurt, but definitely caught. The round goes to Gamboa.

ROUND TWO: We've seen some good young fighters in Angulo and Kirkland tonight, but Gamboa seems to have some extra special about him. Again Jimenez lands some punches against Gamboa, who seems to be taunting Jimenez. Gamboa is holding his hands at his hips, but Jimenez is for the most part not capitalizing. The round ends and you have to give it to Gamboa, although that was closer than the first.

ROUND THREE: Gamboa seems a little bit lazy. He's special in the ring. But he doesn't seem to be working hard enough to totally take control of this fight. He has control, but he could really make Jimenez uncomfortable and he hasn't done it yet. Gamboa landed a few combinations near the end of the round three. He won that round and is ahead three rounds.

ROUND FOUR: Gamboa pounding away now at the start of round four. Not sure that Jimenez can or will want to take too much more of this. But with that said, Jimenez dropped Gamboa with a right hand to the ear. He was hit hard after the knockdown again. He seems to have his legs back under him. But two more strong punches from Jimenez. He is making a fight out of it. The round, and a 10-8 variety to Jimenez.

ROUND FIVE: Gamboa is back in control here in the fifth. He's not being near as lazy and he's pushing Jimenez up against the ropes. He won the round from there. It slowed the final two minutes of the round. But Gamboa made sure Jimenez knew that Round four was some sort of anomoly.

ROUND SIX: Big right hand from Jimenez to start the sixth round that brings roars from the crowd. It was a big shot, but it did not really stagger Gamboa too much. Gamboa is busy but Jimenez is blocking a large portioin of the shots. I think that was as close to an even round as possible. But I think that ultimately Gamboa was more busy and more effective. The round goes to him and I have him leading 58-55 at the moment.

ROUND SEVEN: Gamboa sauteeing Jimenez' face with punches at the start of the round. Jimenez seems to be tiring some. He looks similar to what he looked before he knocked Gamboa down in Round four. He did land a good inside right hand. The hand speed of Gamboa is winning this fight. Jimenez went down, but it was not ruled a knockdown. Gamboa again wresles Jimenez to the canvas. The round ends and I score it for Gamboa.

ROUND EIGHT: Gamboa continues to hit Jimenez. But there doesn't seem to be a lot behind those. It's just a good solid clinical effort. A big right hand by Jimenez staggered and startled Gamboa, who responds with a combination of his own. The biggest and best punch of the round was clearly Jimenez', but I can't give him the round on that one punch. So I give it to Gamboa.

ROUND NINE: Some good action at the start of nine. Jimenez landed a combination, and now Gamboa's punches seem to be having more of an effect on Jimenez. Gamboa just moves so well and his hand speed is so tremendous. There were times in this fight that he has looked lazy. But he just scored with a tremendous left and keeps coming forward. The round again to the Cuban.

ROUND TEN: The final round set to begin. Jimenez needs a miracle and Gamboa starts on the offensive. Gamboa fights the final round, like its the first. Great effort by him with his speed.

The fight does goe to the scorecards, but I don't see much debate here. It was clearly Gamboa. I had it 98-91 and I wouldn't expect to see anything closer than 97-92 and that is probably a reach.
97-92 from two judges 99-91 from one judge to Gamboa.

Good win and it will be interesting to see how his career evolves.