Yuriorkis Gamboa? Tugstsogt Nyambayar? Wouldn’t matter to Chris Colbert which one he faces. The result, he said, would be the same.
Colbert, the hot 24-year-old junior lightweight contender from Brooklyn, was scheduled to face Gamboa on Saturday in Carson, Calif., but the Cuban pulled out with an injury last week. Nyambayar, the 2012 Olympic silver medalist, will take his place.
Colbert was planned to stop Gamboa. And he has the same thing in mind for Nyambayar, who is moving up from featherweight for the fight.
“He’s a good fighter,” Colbert told me and Kenneth Bouhairie on The PBC Podcast, referring to Nyambayar. “He’s an Olympian, right? He got an Olympic medal. But he’s never fought ‘Prime Time.’ I think I’m too fast, too big, too strong.
“Him coming up in weight and taking the fight on a week and half notice? That’s dangerous.”
Could Colbert (15-0, 6 KOs) have problems adjusting to a new opponent so close to the fight?
Nah. First, he believes Gamboa and Nyambayar (12-1, 9 KOs) have similar styles, slick, somewhat quick, sneaky power. And, second, he described himself as a “human adapter, one who’s “ready for anything they bring to the table.”
He even believes he knows how the fight will play out.
“Me being smart the first round or two,” he said. “See what he’s got, test him out, feel his power. After the second round, start applying my pressure and start applying my power and show him there’s levels to this s—.
“You can’t take a fight against a monster like myself on a week’s notice and move up in weight to fight me at that and think you’re going to win.”
Colbert’s prediction? “I don’t plan to have this fight go the distance.”
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