By Rick Reeno

BoxingScene.com has been advised that a deal was reached for WBA interim-lightweight champion Richard Abril (17-2-1, 8KOs) to face Brandon Rios (29-0-1, 22KOs) on April 14th at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Rios and Abril were involved in a minor altercation at a press conference last week in Miami.

Rios was intially scheduled to fight Yuriorkis Gamboa, who was moving up by two weight divisions to make the match. However, Gamboa no-showed last week's press conferences in Miami and Los Angeles - and he refused to move forward with the fight, citing differences with his promoters Top Rank and Ahmet Oner.

HBO was scheduled to televise Rios-Gamboa, but the network took a pass on Rios-Abril. Top Rank is currently working on a television deal. Junior welterweight Mike Alvarado will still collide with Mauricio Herrera in the co-feature.

Meanwhile, Top Rank has officially filed a federal lawsuit against Gamboa to recover damages. Among other things, Top Rank claims Gamboa not only agreed to take the Rios fight - he was forwarded an advance on the money [Gamboa allegedly accepted a $70,000 advance]. Gamboa also cost Top Rank thousands of dollars when he allegedly requested the scheduling of a press conference in his hometown of Miami, which he no-showed.

Between the time he accepted the deal on February 16th, and the time he made a decision to withdraw - Top Rank is claiming that a rival promoter [or promoters, indivdiuals outside of Top Rank] spoke to Gamboa and persuaded the Cuban boxer to withdraw from the Rios contest. The alleged culprits have not been named in the legal documents.