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The process of Mikey Garcia moving up in weight appears to be under way.
Plans are in the works for Garcia, who easily outpointed Juan Carlos Burgos in a snoozefest last Saturday night to retain his junior lightweight title, to head up to lightweight for a probable showdown with Yuriorkis Gamboa, Top Rank chairman Bob Arum told ESPN.com.
Arum said he is working on getting the fight made with Gamboa promoter Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and HBO. Arum said the date of the fight would be May 17 at the newly renovated Forum in Inglewood, Calif.
"We're working on it," Arum said. "HBO wants that fight. We like that fight, and you know Gamboa wants that fight. So does Mikey."
Gamboa (23-0, 16 KOs), who holds an interim lightweight belt, and Garcia (34-0, 28 KOs), also a former featherweight titlist, have been going back and forth about fighting each other on social media since even before Garcia beat Burgos. With no other seriously attractive options for either man at 130 or 135 pounds, a fight between them makes sense.
While Garcia has been active -- he has fought four times in the past 13 months -- Gamboa, a former unified featherweight titlist, fought only once in 2012 and once in 2013. During that time, he also was implicated in the Biogenesis steroids scandal and was arrested twice for domestic violence incidents.
Arum said if he can get Gamboa-Garcia made, he would like to include heavyweight prospect Andy Ruiz (21-0, 15 KOs) on the undercard.
The Garcia-Burgos telecast, by the way, didn't attract a huge audience by HBO standards, but it dwarfed that of the competing Showtime card.
The entire HBO telecast drew an average of 777,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. The Garcia-Burgos main event drew 829,000 viewers while the heavyweight undercard featuring Bryant Jennings' 10th-round knockout of Artur Szpilka drew 811,000 viewers.
The HBO telecast nearly doubled the Showtime telecast, which drew an average 390,000 viewers. Surprisingly, the opening bout on the Showtime card, junior middleweight prospect Jermell Charlo's decision against Gabriel Rosado, drew 472,000 viewers and beat the main event. Junior welterweight titlist Lamont Peterson's action-packed decision win against Dierry Jean drew just 402,000 viewers. A portion of the main events of the two cards went head-to-head.
http://espn.go.com/blog/dan-rafael/p...a-in-the-works
Plans are in the works for Garcia, who easily outpointed Juan Carlos Burgos in a snoozefest last Saturday night to retain his junior lightweight title, to head up to lightweight for a probable showdown with Yuriorkis Gamboa, Top Rank chairman Bob Arum told ESPN.com.
Arum said he is working on getting the fight made with Gamboa promoter Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and HBO. Arum said the date of the fight would be May 17 at the newly renovated Forum in Inglewood, Calif.
"We're working on it," Arum said. "HBO wants that fight. We like that fight, and you know Gamboa wants that fight. So does Mikey."
Gamboa (23-0, 16 KOs), who holds an interim lightweight belt, and Garcia (34-0, 28 KOs), also a former featherweight titlist, have been going back and forth about fighting each other on social media since even before Garcia beat Burgos. With no other seriously attractive options for either man at 130 or 135 pounds, a fight between them makes sense.
While Garcia has been active -- he has fought four times in the past 13 months -- Gamboa, a former unified featherweight titlist, fought only once in 2012 and once in 2013. During that time, he also was implicated in the Biogenesis steroids scandal and was arrested twice for domestic violence incidents.
Arum said if he can get Gamboa-Garcia made, he would like to include heavyweight prospect Andy Ruiz (21-0, 15 KOs) on the undercard.
The Garcia-Burgos telecast, by the way, didn't attract a huge audience by HBO standards, but it dwarfed that of the competing Showtime card.
The entire HBO telecast drew an average of 777,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. The Garcia-Burgos main event drew 829,000 viewers while the heavyweight undercard featuring Bryant Jennings' 10th-round knockout of Artur Szpilka drew 811,000 viewers.
The HBO telecast nearly doubled the Showtime telecast, which drew an average 390,000 viewers. Surprisingly, the opening bout on the Showtime card, junior middleweight prospect Jermell Charlo's decision against Gabriel Rosado, drew 472,000 viewers and beat the main event. Junior welterweight titlist Lamont Peterson's action-packed decision win against Dierry Jean drew just 402,000 viewers. A portion of the main events of the two cards went head-to-head.
http://espn.go.com/blog/dan-rafael/p...a-in-the-works
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