On 26 March 2011 Gamboa fought Jorge Solís to defend his WBA featherweight title. Although the fight was originally agreed to contest both of Gamboa's WBA and IBF featherweight titles, Gamboa missed a mandatory re-weighing procedure established by the IBF which resulted in the title being withdrawn. The fight lasted only four rounds after Gamboa sent Solis to the floor a total of five times, causing referee David Fields to stop the fight, giving Gamboa the victory by TKO. After the fight, Gamboa was interviewed, a moment that Gamboa took advantage of to express his awareness and support towards the victims of Japan's latest earthquake and tsunami. Gamboa also took the opportunity to proclaim his desire to fight higher caliber featherweight boxers such as Indonesian Chris John and Puerto Rican Juan Manuel López, who was attending the fight as a spectator and decided to come up to the ring and proclaim his desire for a possible fight with Gamboa as he also made the observation that it was a business decision to be taken by their shared promoter Bob Arum.