Brandon Rios vs. Yuriorkis Gamboa Still On for April 14th in Vegas?
What was supposed to be the Los Angeles press conference for the Brandon Rios vs. Yuriorkis Gamboa clash today turned into something quite different. As we all know, yesterday’s Miami presser was squashed when Yuriorkis Gamboa didn’t show up to his own hometown event, something he had specifically requested.
Since, rumors were flying back and forth that Gamboa was backing out, that he really has signed with Mayweather Promotions and is trying to leave Top Rank, and so on and so forth. Today’s press conference was supposed to clear the air, but it seems like more questions have been left unanswered.
Top Rank’s Todd duBoef took the mic at the presser, and went into a long speech about what he termed the “genesis” of the Rios vs. Gamboa fight. Basically Gamboa’s team requested the fight last year, and said they wanted Manny Pacquiao, but first they wanted the lightweight championship and Brandon Rios.
So, after both men successfully navigated through their respective fights at the end of 2011, negotiations began.
According to duBoef, on February 16th, a deal was in place with all parties. He then went on to talk about how this is the exact kind of fight that boxing should be all about, and ticket sales and fan interest have been great, and all of that. He also explained that to make this happen, all of the partners they are involved with had to get to action, the sponsors, the site, HBO, etc.
It all seemed like he was getting ready to say, “…but now Gamboa has backed out…”
Instead though, he goes on to say that he called Gamboa’s team this week and put an offer out there of a $100,000 bonus to go to the winner of the fight. An offer to put the prize back in prizefighting and see who wants it more.
Brandon Rios then got on the stage and talked about how he thinks Gamboa is intimidated, and he held up a poster which called Gamboa a coward. But then he said he’s still going to be training like the fight would be happening anyway, and that the $100,000 offer was a good one.
But it was more of a plea to Gamboa to accept the fight, and not back out, and not an acknowledgement or assertion that the fight was still on.
duBoef wrapped things up by saying they are moving ahead, and you don’t want to miss Brandon Rios on April 14th. But he didn’t say you don’t want to miss Rios vs. Gamboa on the 14th. And he never addressed all the reports that say Gamboa will back out, or has already backed out, and insists a deal was never in place to begin with.
*Sigh*…
In other words, we basically know nothing. Top Rank is pretending that Rios vs. Gamboa is still a go, but really, they have made an offer for an extra $100,000 to go to the winner, and nobody knows whether or not that will satisfy Gamboa, and if the fight will actually take place.
The only thing we know is that on April 14th, Rios will be fighting on HBO in Las Vegas. Hopefully it’s against Gamboa, but already replacement names like Mike Alvarado or Mercito Gesta have been thrown out there.
I guess we all have to continue to stay tuned. In the meantime, for some more entertainment from Brandon Rios, at least you can check out this video from the Miami presser, where Rios got into a scuffle with Richard Abril:
We’ll give you more boxing news updates about Rios vs. Gamboa when we have them.
