Cuban Revolution

By Adam_Canavan

It was in 1962 where the Cuban leader Fidel Castro decided to outlaw professional sports for political reasons that are probably beyond my knowledge to comment on, I'll stick to the boxing, and this leads to the Cuban domination in the amateurs that we all know and love. and if a Cuban fighter did want to turn pro then they would have to defect from their country. Fighters such as Teófilo Stevenson and Felix Savon chose to stay put in the amateurs and stay with their country and the great Pro's Cuba have produced such as Kid Chocolate and Kid Gavilán predated the ban on professional sports with the exception of the likes of Joel Casamayor, who is probably the most well known and successful Cuban defector in the pro ranks so far.

Yuriorkis Gamboa VS Darrley Perez - Fight Preview

By Jack Sumner @Jack_Sumner_

Gamboa climbs off canvas to earn a decision win over Farenas.

Yuriokis Gamboa and Darley Pérez meet at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada this Saturday with the vacant WBA interim lightweight title on the line. In his first fight at lightweight, Gamboa takes on a fellow unbeaten Latin American fighter in Perez, who’ll be looking for stateside exposure by taking the scalp of one of boxing’s most hyped emerging stars.

Gamboa and Top Rank starting to solve problems...

Gamboa, Arum & Rios posing for the fight that never happened.

It looks as though that the shaky relationship between Top Rank and former featherweight world champion Yuriorkis Gamboa is starting to run a little more smoothly.

Back in March, Top Rank filed a federal lawsuit against Gamboa. The reason for this was that Gamboa was scheduled to fight Brandon Rios on April 14th but failed to show up at the press conferences and then refused to go ahead with the fight. As a result of this, Rios was forced to defend his title against Cuban lightweight Richard Abril. Top Rank were annoyed and shocked at the actions of Gamboa and felt that they had to use him as an example and made him face full consequences.

At various points over the last few months, Gamboa was seen in the company of Floyd Mayweather Jr, 50 Cent and other members of the 'Money Team.' On the day of the first press conference that Gamboa missed, the Cuban was seen training at Mayweather's gym.

But now it seems that Gamboa and Top Rank are starting to patch things up. According to Top Rank CEO Bob Arum, Gamboa will be ringside at the MGM Grand Arena on June 9th to watch Manny Pacquiao take on Timothy Bradley for the WBO welterweight title.

Arum also explained that Gamboa made the right decision to return to Top Rank.

"I think he realises that those people are full of sh*t... Mayweather, 50 Cent and all those people. They are going to have to pay damages," threatened Arum.

Mayweather speaks out against Bob Arum...

Floyd 'Money' Mayweather.

Floyd Mayweather Jr told us today that former promoter and now biggest rival Bob Arum is attempting to sue Mayweather's adviser Leonard Ellerbe over the Yuriorkis Gamboa situation.

In case you haven't heard about what happened between Mayweather Promotions, Top Rank and Gamboa this sums up what happened:

- Gamboa no-shows at press conference for fight with Rios.
- Rumours heard that Gamboa was in talks with Mayweather promotions.
- Gamboa spotted training at Mayweather's gym whilst he was meant to be at the second press conference.
- Top Rank threaten to sue whoever was responsible for Gamboa's no-shows and exit from the promotion
  company.

It is now fight week for Mayweather and Cotto and 'Money' is being his usual self. Whenever it comes to the week of the fight he starts speaking out a bit more and starts to say a few controversial things. This is what he had to say about the Gamboa situation:

Gamboa training at Mayweather's gym.

"Bob Arum has been filling you all up with his bullshit for years and robbing fighters. He's trying to sue Leonard for Gamboa, knowing that he's been treating his fighter wrong. Gamboa came over here and all this fighter wanted to do is making a living. They've been treating this fighter wrong from the beginning. I'm wrong because I want to treat a fighter right? You know why? Because Don King and Bob Arum can't see out the eyes of a fighter, because they are not a fighter."

Floyd Mayweather is finally starting to come alive for the first time in the build-up to this fight. He also lashed out at Manny Pacquiao and HBO during his rant.

BoxingOpinions Special: Orlando Salido... Journeyman to Champion!

I guess you could say that WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido is one of the most unlikely champions around today. The Mexican warrior lost eight of his first seventeen fights and at one point he was even considered as a journeyman and a fighter that was going nowhere in his career. However, that all changed when he defeated world-class talent Robert Guerrero...

After the fight with Guerrero, Salido apparently tested positive for steroids but the test was retaken and there was nothing illegal found in his body. Although he was proved innocent, the steroids rumour meant that Salido still wasn't really able to get rid of his journeyman 'label'. But, a fighter like Salido does not let this sort of thing affect him. He continued to fight and in 2010 he landed a fight with pound-for-pound contender Yuriorkis Gamboa. Salido did not win the fight but he proved that he was able to compete at world level.

Things then got even better for the 32-year old. He was given the opportunity to to challenge undefeated world champion Juan Manuel Lopez for the WBO title.

Salido went into the fight as a massive underdog and nobody, including Lopez, really expected him to win. This is what made Salido's victory even sweeter. He shocked the world by stopping Lopez in the 8th round and he became the new featherweight champion of the world.

Salido-Lopez II could be fight of the year.

Lopez moaned about the fight and claimed that the referee stepped in way too early but it was clear that the Puerto Rican was in big trouble. A rematch between the two fighters was made this year and again it took place in Lopez's home country. Everyone in the whole arena, including the judges, was against Salido. But, he didn't care! He sent Lopez crashing to the canvas in round 10 and the referee stopped the fight. The fight is a huge contender for fight of the year.

Salido may have turned pro at the age of 15, he may have been in more wars than he can actually remember, he may be showing signs of ring wear but nobody can deny that this man will give any featherweight in the world trouble. He is the current world champion and he is still looking very, very strong!

Abril is willing to fight Rios again...

I guess you've all heard by now about the fight between Richard Abril and Brandon Rios. If you haven't, all you need to know is that Abril out-boxed Rios throughout the whole fight and won almost every round on most people's scorecards. But, Rios was the bigger name fighter and the home town favourite so two out of the three judges decided to give the decision to him. This caused uproar amongst the fans and the rest of the boxing world as they believed that Abril had been robbed of the WBA title.

The 29-year old Cuban is still very annoyed about the whole thing and has told  World Boxing News that he is still hoping to retain his interim WBA championship. He may then decide to move up to 140lb if an opportunity arises.

"We are still waiting for the rankings from the WBA, but I am confident I will be given a shot at the vacant title," said Abril.

"As soon as the first judge gave Rios the decision, I knew I had lost the fight and all the talk of holding after the bout was his team trying to justify the boxing clinic that I gave him... I am more than willing to move up to 140lb  and give Rios another schooling but I doubt Rios would accept the fight."

When he was asked whether he would like to fight the likes of Yuriorkis Gamboa or Sergio Thompson for the vacant belt, Abril answered: "I will fight King Kong if I have to. It doesn't matter who they offer me."

"If the opportunity came up to fight Juan Manuel Marquez,I would willingly move up to light-welterweight, not for any personal reasons against him.. Just as it would be an honour to share the ring with him," said  Abril.

A rematch between Abril and Rios is very unlikely to happen as I cannot see Rios and his team accepting that fight. The match that we have the most chance of seeing is probably Abril Vs Gamboa for the vacant belt. What a great fight that would be...

Juan Manuel Marquez Vs Brandon Rios... July 14th!

Rios (left) , Marquez (right).

The fight is not 100% yet but I'd say it's almost definite to happen seeing as everyone wants it to happen. That's right, we could be seeing one of the greatest lightweight match-ups in recent years which many people are already saying is a certain 'Fight Of The Year'.

Boxing fans were very disappointed when the highly anticipated clash between Rios and Yuriorkis Gamboa was cancelled due to Gamboa backing out of the fight; but now they have been given something that will most likely prove to be even better.

It has been reported that Top Rank are already in talks with Dallas Cowboys officials about having the boxing match at Cowboys Stadium.
There is already another bout planned for the July 14th event which consists of Nonito Donaire Vs Cristian Mijares which will likely be slid into the co-headline slot with the Rios and Marquez bout if it is arranged.

Bob Arum has said that he wants the fight and it's almost definite as long as Marquez and Rios win their fights on April 14th, which should not prove too hard as many people believe that both of their opponents are not on their level.

Top Rank Sues Yuriorkis Gamboa... And More!

As we all know from reports last week, Top Rank is suing Yuriorkis Gamboa for breach of contract. The main reason being that he didn't turn up to the press conferences for his fight with Brandon Rios who will now be fighting Richard Abril instead of Gamboa.

If you thought Top Rank were just going to make an example of Gamboa by just suing him, you were wrong, they're not just going to stop there. It looks like they could be suing up to 10 other people who were rumored to be involved with the whole ordeal. According to reports, these are people who are associated with promotional companies that apparently tried to poach Gamboa.

Gamboa seen training at Mayweather's gym.

These people have not yet been named but going by rumors and common sense I think most people will be able to guess who a few of them are. Even Oscar De La Hoya at Golden Boy has been accused. The reason for this being his big announcement on Twitter that we were all waiting for just to find out that he had been sober for 10 months. Maybe he was about to announce that he had poached Gamboa but thought better of it and stayed out of trouble.

Most people think that it is Mayweather Promotions who are guilty. Gamboa was seen training at Mayweather's gym whilst he was meant to be at the press conferences for his fight with Rios. So this is a big lump of evidence that would point towards Mayweather Promotions so they will definitely have some explaining to do.

Top Rank's reason for suing is that they believe if Gamboa was left unpunished it would damage their reputation and make other fighters believe that they can do the same whenever they want. They will likely try to drag out the case for a while to try and punish Yuriorkis Gamboa with legal fees.

Rios to face Abril instead of Gamboa!

On April 14th Brandon Rios will now face Richard Abril. Rios was set to participate in a highly anticipated bout between himself and Yuriorkis Gamboa but Gamboa shockingly withdrew from the fight and is now likely to be sued by Top Rank.

Rios' opponent Richard Abril.

Gamboa is in serious danger of ending up in a tremendously bad financial spot seeing as he doesn't have a very big fan-base which means he won't get much support and the money Top Rank will try and claim will almost definitely be very big!

Going back to the fight... Abril (17-2-1) will in no way shape or form make up for the absence of Gamboa but he will likely make it an entertaining bout and he always 'comes to fight.'

 Despite his big decision win over Miguel Acosta, Abril is still not a Top 10 lightweight and Rios' fans have specifically said that after his 5 wins in a row they want to see their fighter in the ring with a 'next step' opponent.

Refunds are available but I doubt that they will be many people asking for one. After all a fight is a fight and it's not like it will be a walk-over win for Rios.

Well... Richard Abril definitely won't see it that way.