By James Slater – In what could well be an early FOTY candidate, unbeaten stars Brandon Rios and Yuriorkis Gamboa will clash for the vacant WBA 135-pound title in Las Vegas on April 14th. This news has been confirmed by a number of sources, including Ringtv.com and Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports.
The mouth-watering match-up will go down at The Mandalay Bay. According to the news on Ringtv.com, Rios is already in training for the fight he has wanted for quite some time.
An excellent fight of the highest quality, April 14th’s showdown will see the ultra-talented Gamboa rise in weight from the 126-pound division he won two belts in. A pretty big jump in poundage to say the least (especially when you consider Gamboa’s height is just over 5’5”), the Cuban who captured an Olympic gold medal in 2004 has never boxed above 127-pounds. That was his last fight, back in September of last year, when the speedy 30-year-old beat Daniel Ponce De Leon on an 8th-round TD that was caused by cuts suffered by the Mexican bomber.
Gamboa, 21-0(16) now faces the toughest foe of his pro career in the tough, street-talking “Bam Bam” Rios.
25-year-old Rios of Lubbock, Texas is 29-0-1(22) and he has already won and lost the WBA lightweight title. Winning it in early last year and retaining it one time, Rios lost the belt on the scales ahead of his Dec. 2011 stoppage win over game Brit John Murray. Big for the weight, the 5’8” warrior looked headed up to light-welterweight, but the promise of one mega-fight down at 135 saw to it that he got himself a nutritionist, and Rios says he feels great right now; that the weight is coming off fine. He had better hope so against Gamboa.
Rios will have to be firing on all cylinders if he’s to take the sizzling Cuban’s “O.” The last thing “Bam Bam” needs is to enter the ring in April as a weight-drained, weakened fighter. Gamboa may be making a big leap up in weight himself, but it may be that he is the stronger, faster guy on fight night – after all, Gamboa has been talking about moving up because he struggles to make featherweight, for some time.
The weight issues aside, this one is sure to be a great fight. Both men love to fight, both can really punch and both really seem to genuinely dislike each other. Add it all up and we have a can’t-miss April rumble.