Gamboa added to Dec. 8 card
By Dan Rafael | ESPN.com
GamboaEd Mulholland/Fightwire.comAfter more than a year away from the ring, Yuriorkis Gamboa could return to face Miguel Beltran Jr.
We all know that Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez will meet for the fourth time on Dec. 8 (HBO PPV) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. But what else will you get if you decide to shell out the $50 or $60 to buy the pay-per-view? Here is what you can expect the undercard to look like, according to Top Rank, although the bouts are not finalized yet:
• Former featherweight titlist Yuriorkis Gamboa (21-0, 16 KOs), who left Top Rank when rapper 50 Cent, an aspiring promoter, bought out his contract for seven figures earlier this year, will be on the card under a deal struck between 50 and Top Rank. If the fight is finalized, Gamboa -- idle since September 2011 after pulling out of a fight earlier this year with Brandon Rios and because of the snit with Top Rank that led to the sale of his contract -- would face Mexico's Miguel Beltran Jr. (27-2, 17 KOs) for a vacant interim junior lightweight belt. Beltran is coming off a split decision loss to Roman “Rocky” Martinez for a vacant title in an all-action slugfest on the Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. undercard on Sept. 15.
• Lightweight titleholder Miguel Vazquez (32-3, 13 KOs) of Mexico, who retained his belt with a split decision win against mandatory challenger Marvin Quintero last Saturday night in the opening bout of an HBO tripleheader, is being lined up to face the Philippines’ Mercito Gesta (26-0-1, 14 KOs) in a fight that has been in the works since before Vazquez even faced Quintero.
• Dynamic featherweight prospect Javier Fortuna (20-0, 15 KOs) of the Dominican Republic likely will face upstate New York-based Ireland native Patrick Hyland (27-0, 12 KOs) for a vacant interim featherweight belt.
Not a bad lineup, looking forward on how Gamboa will perform after a long layoff. It's nice to know as well that they were abe to make a fight with TR considering the feud they had. Vasquez vs Gesta is a good fight as well, but i think it'll be a UD for Vasquez. :boxing:
Gamboa vs. Martinez should be good, I really don't care to see Vasquez again, and I was almost 100% possitive that they would put Mike Lee on the card as well as Rigondeaux. I hope they don't think of giving Rigondeaux main event status on an upcoming HBO, because so far his competition has been extremely poor. Overall this card deserves a D+, C- if I'm being generous, You figure people really don't want to see the main event so the undercard should have been stacked. Or maybe that speaks to the stable of fighters that top rank has. (Not much to choose from in each division)
Yea, not a terrible undercard but that is a weak co-feature the three fights are all fine for the lower part of a PPV card and could be fun but I just think the co-feature should stand out more.
i was expecting worse...that's not too bad
actually pretty food for TR undercard. The return of Gamboa is enticing, bunch of people think vazquez might be the best at 130 lbs, and the rest is meh but not bad either.