According to Dan Rafael of espn.com the much anticipated April 14th clash between WBA Lightweight champion Barndon Rios and Featherweight titlist Yuriorkis Gamboa has been called off due to Gamboa missing pre fight obligations.
“Brandon will be fighting April 14 and we are working on the details now,” Top Rank spokesman Lee Samuels told ESPN.com on Wednesday. “There will be a fight April 14.”
Samuels said that the junior welterweight fight between Mike Alvarado (32-0, 23 KOs) and Mauricio Herrera (18-1, 7 KOs), which was scheduled to open the HBO telecast, will go on as planned on the reshaped card.
“Brandon is disappointed. He’s mad. He’s hurt. All those emotions,” Cameron Dunkin, Rios’ manager, told ESPN.com. “He was really looking forward it. It’s a shame, but he’s gonna fight.”
Rios will still fight on the card.
Richard Abril (17-2-1, 8 KOs), who holds an interim lightweight title, is the leading candidate, Dunkin said. Abril, a Cuban living in Miami, got into a heated argument with Rios (29-0-1, 22 KOs) at last week’s Miami news conference, which had been planned for that city because it is where Gamboa, also a Cuban, lives. Abril also holds the WBA’s interim belt while Rios and Gamboa were scheduled to fight for the vacant full title.
“He’s a big possibility, probably the leading candidate, but it’s not done yet,” Dunkin said of Abril. “We don’t know what we’re doing yet. I need to still talk with Todd and Carl and we’ll figure it out. I gotta tell them what I want to do and I need to hear what they want to do. I had a long talk with Brandon and (trainer) Robert Garcia about it (Tuesday) night. They are just disappointed because they want to fight and they wanted to fight Gamboa.”
“I’m never mad at HBO. They’re the buyers. They buy what they want to buy,” Dunkin said. “Do I agree with them on this? No, I don’t agree with them. But it’s their choice and their network. All I can do is go sign the best fighters in the world and get them with the best people in the world and the best promotion in the world and I’ve done that. I don’t know how you don’t like Brandon Rios. I’m stumbling for words.
“I don’t know how you pass on Brandon Rios against anyone. He’ll make a fun fight every time out, so it’s a shame. He loves to fight and he gives it everything he’s got. But if they don’t want it, they don’t want it. It’s a bad situation, but it’s boxing.
