Pictured: Yuriorkis Gamboa

Last night, at The WAMU Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, four TTR ranked fighters saw action in the card's co-main events. Yuriorkis Gamboa and Juan Manuel Lopez both scored impressive victories and took another step towards their eventual showdown.

Gamboa, TTR's #6 ranked featherweight, retained the WBA featherweight title by halting TTR #10 ranked junior featherweight Rogers Mtagwa at 2:35 of the second round. The 2004 Olympic gold medalist, now 17-0 with 15 KOs, floored Mtagwa once in the first round and twice in the second. Mtagwa, ranked #10 at 122 pounds by the WBO and #13 at 126 by the WBA, had no answer for the speed and accuracy of Gamboa's combinations. The loss drops the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based Tanzanian veteran's record to 26-14-2 with one No Contest and 18 victories by knockout.

Lopez, TTR's #2 ranked junior featherweight and the WBO champion at 122 pounds, moved up to the featherweight class and won the WBO title from defending champion and TTR #2 ranked featherweight Steven Luevano. Lopez controlled the action from the opening bell until referee Benjy Estevez, Jr. stopped the contest at 44 seconds of the seventh round. Lopez decked Luevano in the seventh round and Estevez called it off shortly after Luevano made it to his feet. "Juanma," who had made five successful defenses of the junior featherweight title he took from Daniel Ponce de Leon in June of 2008, improved to 28-0 with his 25th victory by knockout. Luevano, who was defending his title for the sixth time since winning it in 2007, suffered his second defeat to go with 37 wins, 15 by knockout, and one draw.

HBO televised both fights as part of its Boxing After Dark series. A Gamboa-Lopez unification bout is obviously one the cable network plans on presenting later this year.

In the non-televised portion of the card:

middleweight John Duddy (WBO #12; 28-1, 18 KOs) knocked out Juan Astorga (14-4-1, 9 KOs) at 1:55 of the first round;

junior middleweight Pawel Wolak (WBC #19; 26-1, 17 KOs) won a unanimous, eight-round decision over Ishmail Arvin (15-2-4, 7 KOs);

cruiserweight Carlos Negron (7-0, 5 KOs) unanimously outpointed Garrett Wilson (7-3, 2 KOs) over six rounds;

light heavyweight Will Rosinsky (10-0, 6 KOs) scored a six-round unanimous decision over Markus Gonzalez (7-3, 4 KOs);

junior welterweight Chris Algieri (10-0, 5 KOs) won a unanimous decision over James Hope (4-4, 4 KOs) after six rounds;

featherweight Jorge Diaz (12-0, 8 KOs) KOed Tommy Atencio (4-4, 2 KOs) at 1:27 of the first round;

and welterweight Tommy Rainone (13-3, 4 KOs) won by a unanimous verdict over Gerardo Cesar Prieto (6-8-1, 0 KOs) after 4 rounds.