Rios May Land The Marquez Fight That He Always Wanted

By Chris Robinson

Things can change within the drop of a pin in the boxing world.

Earlier this month the anticipation towards the sport’s next big show, a mouthwatering clash between former champions Brandon Rios and Yuriorkis Gamboa, was the talk of the town. All the hype died down, however, when Gamboa skipped out on a pair of press conferences in Miami and Los Angeles on Monday, March 5th and Tuesday, March 6th, respectively, raising questions as to whether or not he even wanted the fight.

Sure enough, Gamboa claimed that he wasn’t pushing forward with the Rios fight because of his dissatisfaction with co-promoters Top Rank and Arena-Box, and claimed that he would need a resolution with them before eyeing any future endeavors. Having spent much of his time training at Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s gym in Las Vegas in recent weeks, Gamboa would later get the unpleasant news that he was being sued by Top Rank for a breach of contract.

Before the implosion of Rios-Gamboa, I had been spending some time at my newfound stomping grounds, the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy in Oxnard, California, where Rios has been training ardently.

Despite focusing on Gamboa, Rios couldn’t hide his enthusiasm towards a possible clash with Mexican legend Juan Manuel Marquez, who was then slated for a July 14th date against an opponent to be named at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas. The only problem, at least for the 25-year old Rios, was that it was Mandaue City, Philippines born Mercito Gesta, an undefeated lightweight contender, who was being eyed as Marquez’s foe at the time.

Gesta is an ambitious character and had spent much of last year calling for a bout with Rios, only to have his name brushed aside by ‘Bam Bam’, who insisted he needed to do more in order to land such a meaningful fight.

And when fathoming the idea of Gesta leapfrogging him to get a crack at Marquez, Rios seemed beyond perplexed.

“Why the f*** they want to put Mojito Gesta, whatever his f***ing name is?’ Rios asked me a few weeks back as he started another day at camp. “He hasn’t done sh*t. Why would he be in? He only beat nobodies. He’s just going for a payday. They should put me in there.”

Wrapping his fighter’s hands at the time, trainer Robert Garcia would jump in with his thoughts, claiming that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum would eventually wise up and realize the value of a Marquez-Rios event.

“Bob Arum is smart and yes, he might want to bring the Filipino people in,” said Garcia of a possible Marquez-Gesta encounter. “I think he would bring twice or triple the people in if it was Brandon Rios against Marquez. We’re fighting April 14th and we got to go through this fight first. If everything goes well and we’re not cut and we don’t get injuries, three months later, why can’t we go and fight Marquez at Cowboys Stadium? It would be huge. I’m pretty sure Arum has that in his mind.”

Sure enough, it now looks like Top Rank is angling for a Marquez-Rios bout in July if they both get past their respective opponents next month, as confirmed to me by Top Rank director of publicity Lee Samuels recently. Rios now finds himself in with Cuba’s Richard Abril while Marquez meets up with the Ukraine's Serhiy Fedchenko in his hometown of Mexico City in a split-site pay per view attraction.

Adding a little more intrigue to their possible melee, Rios added that he would love the winner to face off with Manny Pacquiao later in the year.

“They should do me and Marquez fight, and the winner fight [Manny] Pacquiao,” added Rios. “That’s the way we should do it.”

Marquez fought courageously during his trilogy with Pacquiao this past November, convincing many he had done enough to win after twelve rounds of action at the MGM Grand, yet he was on the short end of a majority-decision. Pacquiao is presently lined up with a June 9th defense of his WBO welterweight title against undefeated junior welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, a fight that is far from an easy task.

A lot of scenarios taking place at the moment. Let’s see how it all plays out.