By Jake Donovan (photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank)
From the first time they were showcased on the same card (albeit in separate bouts) last October, undefeated featherweight titlists Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa appeared to be on a collision course to one day face each in a bout that ultimately determine divisional supremacy.
The demand was even greater following their HBO-televised doubleheader earlier this year, with both prevailing by knockout in separate bouts against Top 10 featherweight opposition.
Undefeated lightweight contender Anthony Peterson has basically been on hold for much of 2010, waiting for a long overdue mandatory shot against Humberto Soto.
The fact that he’s no longer ranked by the sanctioning body that claims Soto as its champ tells you all you need to know about the chances of that fight happening… probably about as much of a chance as Lopez and Gamboa fighting any time soon.
Instead of the fights we want or the fights they are owed, we are once again offered the fights that the promoters would rather give us.
In a vacuum, there’s hardly anything at all wrong with this weekend’s offering on HBO, which airs live from The Palms Casino in Las Vegas (Saturday, 10PM ET/PT).
Gamboa (18-0, 15KO) returns to the ring for the third time this year, taking on Orlando Salido (34-10-2, 22KO) in an alphabet featherweight unification match.
Meanwhile, Peterson (30-0, 20KO) takes on the dangerous Brandon Rios (24-0-1, 18KO) in a matchup of unbeaten lightweight contenders.
On paper, both fights promise to entertain and – at least as far as Peterson-Rios is concerned – figures to be competitive.
But the question to be asked is what exactly awaits the winner?
For Gamboa, it’s clearly not going to be a showdown with Lopez anytime soon, as the Puerto Rican southpaw is slated to face Rafael Marquez later this year – ironically enough in a rare occasion these days where Top Rank opts to match one of its fighters against someone not currently in their stable (and in the case of Marquez, a former Top Rank fighter, at that).
Fans have called for a consolation prize of having the folks at Top Rank match their Cuban stud-in-the-making against top-rated featherweight Celestino Caballero. To date, they have yet to warm up to the idea, coming up with convenient excuses to not yet make the fight happen.
Gamboa was going to fight a unification match one way or another this weekend. Salido was the first choice, but initially pulled when cuts suffered in his title-winning effort against Cristobal Cruz were deemed too severe to return for a then-scheduled July fight.
In came another alphabet titlist in Elio Rojas – considered by most to be an upgrade from Salido. However, those plans fell through when Rojas suffered an injury less than a month prior to his scheduled clash with Gamboa.
The injury caused the entire date to fall through, and pushed back this Saturday. The extra seven weeks allowed Salido to receive medical clearance to re-enter the fray, which is what leads us to this weekend’s headline attraction.
Assuming he wins, what lies ahead for Gamboa isn’t entirely clear. Perhaps a fight with Rojas is revisited – with three paper belts at stake, why not? Bouts with Caballero and even Chris John are far more appealing, but also less likely to happen.
The truth is that, if Arum is serious about allowing a Lopez-Gamboa match to truly marinate until next year, more attractive options will have to await Gamboa in the meantime, as well as means to expand his fanbase.
By his own admission, the Hall-of-Fame promoter doesn’t quite seeing Gamboa becoming a gate attraction, that his true value will come in being a TV star (like far too many other fighters in this generation). That leaves him with Plan B, which to have him clean out the division before matching him up JuanMa.
That’s the plan anyway. What really happens beyond this weekend, is anyone’s guess.
Anything happening to Anthony Peterson’s career will be a considerable upgrade. Conceivably, big things should happen if he gets by Rios this weekend.
Then again, he was already in position for a big fight, only to be brushed aside and flat out disrespected by his own promoter.
For the better part of the year, Peterson has served as the mandatory challenger for lightweight titlist Humberto Soto. “Next in line” is all that would be offered whenever anyone inquired about his ever receiving a title shot.
Instead, Peterson has been stuck on the sidelines, forced to read one insulting headline after another about plans to eventually match Soto against faded former three-division champion Marco Antonio Barrera, who unretired and joined up with Top Rank earlier this year.
The latest release has Soto, himself in the twilight of his career, calling out fellow golden oldies Barrera, Erik Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez while slated to face undeserving challenger Fidel Moterrosa next weekend in Mexico.
To simply put it, Soto is willing to face anyone EXCEPT Peterson these days, it seems.
So where exactly does that leave the former amateur standout who was forced to overcome homelessness and the violence that comes with surviving the inner city streets of Washington DC?
The winner of this weekend’s lightweight eliminator is supposed to be looking at a future shot at Miguel Acosta. Then again, the promise that came with Fernando Montiel and Nonito Donaire not participating in Showtime’s bantamweight tournament is that there were plans in place for the two to instead fight each other. If they do, it certainly won’t happen this year.
The truth is that nobody seems to be quite sure what to expect to develop beyond this weekend.
Sometimes, you only need to live in the present to appreciate a good card. Other times, it helps knowing what plan is in place beyond the show in front of us.
For example, fans were all but told to interpret separate appearances by Tim Bradley and Devon Alexander on HBO’s Boxing After Dark as showcase bouts, but with the promise of a big blank check awaiting the two undefeated junior welterweights should they agree to terms to fight each other.
It’s doubtful that a very big check awaits a fight between Acosta and the Peterson/Rios winner, or even Peterson-Soto, for that matter. There would be for Lopez-Gamboa – if HBO could get Arum to promise that he’d keep his kids on their side of the street and match them up sooner rather than later.
So while there stands a good chance that fans will be entertained in some form or another by this weekend’s show, where the winners – and even the losers – go from there is anyone’s guess.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .
