Mauricio Herrera-Frankie Gomez Set For 146 on Canelo-Khan

By Steve Kim

Last week junior welterweight contender Mauricio Herrera signed on the dotted line to face Frankie Gomez as part of the pay-per-view undercard on May 7th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas underneath the main event which features WBC middleweight titlist, Saul Alvarez versus Amir Khan.

According to Herrera, this fight will be contested at a weight limit of 146-pounds.

"When they offered me (Lucas) Matthysse they offered me 147 (pounds). I had it in my head I might as well try 147, I'm pretty big myself and that didn't happen," said Herrera, who thought he was going to be facing the slugger from Argentina before he pulled out of the assignment due to lingering issues with his eye injury he suffered in his loss to Viktor Postol last October.

"Then it was Frankie Gomez and it was still 147 and that was fine with me. I wanted to try that weight class, he wanted it lower at around 140. I said - 'no that's where I want to fight now, I want to move up.' So then they wanted to negotiate so they said - 'can you make it lower' - and so I guess they were happy with one pound. It doesn't make a big difference. He's the one who can't make weight, so it makes sense."

Herrera is a battle-tested veteran who has faced the likes of Ruslan Provodnikov, Danny Garcia, Mike Alvarado, Jose Benavides and Hank Lundy throughout his career. He was looking forward to facing Matthysse but is relieved that he is still on this show.

"It's just a lot of bullsh*t with my career, a lot of bad luck with how my whole career's gone," said Herrera, who has a record of 22-5 (7 KO's).

"Just when I feel I'm going to break through the door something always comes up. So I was a little disappointed. I didn't know who I was going to fight or if I was even going to be on that card and when they mentioned Frankie Gomez, I let up and I was excited because I said - 'man, this is a tough fight.' So it took that away once I found out.

"They said I would be paid the same as the Matthysee fight so I didn't care. I said - 'tell me whatever you want.'"

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.