By Francisco Salazar

While a potential clash between Miguel “Mikey” Garcia and Yuriorkis Gamboa is being discussed, there are those who wonder if the fight will be made.

“If a fight were to take place, it would have to be on Garcia’s terms.”

Those were the words from Robert Garcia, the older brother of Miguel Angel Garcia and who co-trains along with their father Eduardo.

Garcia (34-0, 28 KOs) is coming off a 12 round unanimous decision over Juan Carlos Burgos in New York City on January 25th.

Even before the fight, there was talk of Garcia fighting Gamboa sometime in 2014. Garcia would have to move up in weight to fight as Gamboa is a world titleholder at the lightweight limit.

A fight between the two is in negotiations, with the possibility of it taking place on May 17th at the renovated Forum in Inglewood, a suburb of Los Angeles, CA.

Gamboa has had a history of calling out fighters, especially from his Twitter account. Gamboa was persistent enough to get a fight in 2012 with Brandon Rios, who is also trained by Robert Garcia.

However, Gamboa did not show up at the kickoff press conference. Instead, Rios fought Richar Abril.

After the Burgos fight, Gamboa appeared inside the ring while Garcia was giving a post-fight interview. Both spoke about fighting one another, but will that realistically translate into a fight?

There are a lot of skeptics out there, especially Robert Garcia. But if a fight were to happen, Garcia believes his younger brother should continue to be compensated well.

“We know that Gamboa talks and he has had a history of pulling out of fights. I even asked him when he came to talk to Mikey if he was going to show up to the press conference and not do what he did to Brandon (Rios).”

“We do not need Gamboa. He needs us more than we need him. And if a fight is made, that’s good. But we believe Mikey should be compensated should a fight against Gamboa be made.”

Miguel Garcia did say in interviews prior to the Burgos fight that it would be his last fight at 130 pounds. While a bout against Gamboa could generate a significant gate and site fee from HBO, which would presumably buy the fight, it will be interesting to see what options exist if a fight between Garcia and Gamboa falls through.

Stay tuned.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. He also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, Knockout Nation, and RingTV. He could be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing