Concern is growing for former world champion and Olympic gold medalist Yuriorkis Gamboa, due to the reluctance of Cuban authorities to release him from jail while he awaits his legal case to be resolved.
As BoxingScene.com reported a few weeks ago, Gamboa was involved in a fatal accident on December 31 while driving through Santiago de Cuba on his way to Guantanamo.
Gamboa was reportedly driving on a dark road and was unable to avoid a pedestrian, who allegedly stopped in front of the boxer’s car. The pedestrian died from his injuries.
According to Gamboa’s manager, Jesse Rodríguez, there is a witness that seems to alleviate the boxer’s guilt.
“It is somewhat frustrating, because we are facing something in which you feel bad for the loss of human life,” Rodríguez told George Ebro.
“If you have to face a trial by Cuban justice, then show up and assume what happens there, but what is fair is your immediate release so that you await your trial at home. He has to face the law of Cuba, but Gamboa should be free.
“If the law says that there is a trial to come, the witness who was with the deceased has declared that it was not Gamboa’s fault. The reconstruction of the events shows that it was not Gamboa’s fault. But if the law says that a trial must be withheld, let the boy go until he faces his day in the Cuban court”.
Gamboa has divided his time between Miami and Guantánamo and often comes to the United States for training camps for big fights, as he did in his recent fights against Devin Haney, Gervonta Davis and Isaac Cruz.
Gamboa has lost his last three fights, including a brutal knockout loss to Cruz on April 16, 2022.
Now at 41 years old, and with this legal matter pending, everything indicates that his boxing career has definitely come to an end.