By Luis Sandoval
Cuban sensation Yuriorkis Gamboa was on the latest edition of BoxingScene Radio and discussed a variety of topics during his exclusive interview. One of the things talked about was the now infamous Brandon Rios fight which never ended up taking place.
Gamboa, who is currently looking for a big name fight, was asked if he had any regrets or if he still stood by his decision to not fight Brandon Rios. Gamboa immediately took the chance to clear the air as he declared it was never a matter of him not wanting the fight but instead a matter of poor negotiations.
“In reality, for me it wasn’t about not choosing to take the fight and that’s something I want to clear up for all the commentators because it’s one thing to know about what you hear and it’s another to know the reality. I never wanted to not make the fight with Brandon Rios. The thing was the negotiations weren’t done correctly. And once they didn’t do things correctly I removed myself from the negotiations completely” Gamboa would tell BoxingScene Radio.
Gamboa also explained once he balked at their offer and they noticed how many tickets had been sold, that’s when he was offered more money but it was too late.
“Every time someone asks me a question, they make it seem like I didn’t want to fight Brandon Rios. So the reason is they didn’t do good negotiations. Once I got out of negotiations because I didn’t accept what they wanted and I started doing different negotiations. THEN they offered me more money once they found that out and also how many tickets had been sold. By then I was already in other negotiations which I wasn’t going to break those only because they found out what my worth really was and offering what they should’ve given me prior”.
Gamboa has since broken away from his former promoter Top Rank and joined rapper turned boxing promoter 50 Cent’s SMS Promotions. The relationship with Top Rank and Gamboa appears to be fine despite the break up as he has been featured on a Top Rank promoted card since his release.
While both Gamboa and Rios appear to have gone different directions, Gamboa would still be interested in fighting Rios and in fact said he asked Arum for the fight recently.
“That’s actually something we have already talked about. We let Bob Arum know after the [Michael] Farenas fight that if there was a possibility to fight with Brandon Rios since [Brandon] had talked a lot but never did it in front of us. We wanted the fight but they didn’t want to make it. But if they want to make the fight once Brandon loses to [Manny] Pacquiao it would be my pleasure” said Gamboa.
You can listen to Yuriorkis Gamboa’s interview in its entirety by listening the BoxingScene Radio podcast: http://tobtr.com/s/4899119
You can follow Luis Sandoval on Twitter @Truewest007. You can also tune in to BoxingScene Radio, Boxingscene’s official audio show every Tuesday from 6-8PM PST with hosts Ernest Gabion, Luis Sandoval, and Ryan Burton.
