According to Jonny Stapleton of onthgrindboxing.com, Irish amateur boxer Robert Gorman was responsible for the rib injury that forced Floyd Mayweather Jr. to postpone his July 18th bout with Juan Manuel Marquez. Apparently, Team Mayweather personally invited Gorman to training camp after seeing him spar with rising super featherweight contender Yuriorkis Gamboa at the Top Rank gym. Before the young amateur knew it, he was trading leather and going toe-to-toe with the former pound-for-pound king.
Gorman burst onto the Las Vegas gym scene last summer under the guidance of former bantamweight champion Wayne McCullough. While sparring with Gamboa, he went toe-to-toe with the Cuban Olympic champion and held his own. Gorman's toughness and hard-hitting style was admired by Mayweather's trainer and uncle, Roger Mayweather, and he was soon contacted for the opportunity of a lifetime.
"I was chosen to fight Mayweather because I have a similar style to Marquez. Now, after going toe-to-toe with the greatest boxer in the world, I would take on anyone. I have learned so much and I am not afraid of any fighter. It was a pity my time got cut short due to the Mayweather's injury," Gorman stated.
Gorman was sparring five days a week with Mayweather in a series of six-minute rounds. Evidently, not only is the 25-year-old tough, but he's also a pretty good boxer and an excellent body puncher as one of his well-placed shots got through Mayweather's vaunted defense and caused the injury.
"I won't admit to injuring him, but I won't say I didn't injure him. What I will say is that I am a big body puncher. I bang in body shots. Plus I sparred four six-minute rounds with him and after the session with me, he still hasn't got back into the ring. I was the last man he sparred. I had to wait for a week to see if was ready to spar again but was then told the fight was called off. You can draw your own conclusions," Gorman revealed.
Perhaps Juan Manuel Marquez can learn something from the young amateur if he so chooses. Considering that Gorman fights at lightweight, it should be reassuring to know that a smaller man can hurt the undefeated fighter with just one well-placed punch. I think the September pay-per-view just got a little more interesting.