Arum still letting Gamboa vs. Lopez build momentum before he matches them up

By Boxing News - 03/24/2011 - Comments

By Jason Kim: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum still feels it’s too soon to match-up his two prized unbeaten featherweight champions Juan Manuel Lopez (30-0, 27 KO’s) and Yuriorkis Gamboa. Arum wants to let the two fighters continue to win fight, build more fans before eventually matching them up at some point in the future. Lopez, 27, holds the WBO featherweight crown and has looked fairly invincible, whereas Gamboa, 29, is the IBF/WBA featherweight champ and has looked a little shaky in some of his fights the past couple of years.

Gamboa has a fight this Saturday night against Jorge Solis (40-2-2, 29 KO’s) at the Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey. Gamboa should win that fight unless he’s gets hurt and taken out. Lopez has a fight coming up on April 16th against Orlando Salido (34-11-2, 22 KO’s) in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. The problem is that neither Gamboa or Lopez are becoming huge stars in the U.S being matched up against lesser fighters.

Their fights still aren’t huge attractions and it’s difficult to see either of them as future pay-per-view fighters. The problem is that they need to be matched up against each other now so that boxing fans can get interested in them in the first place. Beating guys like Solis, and Salido aren’t going to make Lopez and Gamboa popular enough for Arum to realize his dream of a future Gamboa-Lopez fight being a mega fight. It’s just not going to happen. There just isn’t anyone at featherweight that the casual boxing fans are interested in seeing. As such, Arum needs to go ahead and put Lopez and Gamboa together now and that fight will make them stars if it’s a good one.

Arum could then have them fight two or three more times depending on how their fight goes. But by putting them in with guys that boxing fans, other than hardcore fans, have never heard of is a waste of time. Lopez and Gamboa could end up getting beaten and both of them are nearing 30 now. Arum is wasting time by putting this fight off and hoping Lopez and Gamboa will suddenly get popular by fighting Salido and Solis-types. It’s not going to happen. These guys maybe good fighters but they’re totally unknown to the casual boxing fans and those are the fans that Arum is trying to attract.



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