By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA World featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (21-0, 16 KO’s) says he plans on leaving the 126 pound division to move up to try and get bigger and better fights. Juan Manuel Lopez, the former WBO featherweight champion, isn’t too happy about Gamboa’s decision to move up, and feels there are still a lot of big fights for Gamboa at featherweight starting with a fight against him.

Speaking with examiner.com, Lopez said “There are plenty of quality fighters at featherweight. If he fights me, I will beat him. I have to fight Mike Oliver in October, then I have to take care of business with [Orlando] Salido, but after that I’m more than happy to fight Gamboa.”

Gamboa was interested in fighting Lopez in the past. However, when Lopez was trounced by Salido in an 8th round TKO last April, Gamboa’s interest diminished. The reason for that is Gamboa already beat Salido himself without any problems last year by a 12 round unanimous decision in December 2010, and it’s not appealing to see Lopez getting knocked out by a guy that Gamboa handled with relative ease. Lopez has to go through a lot before he’ll even be ready to fight Gamboa, and there’s question marks if Lopez will be able to beat Salido in a rematch. If you look at that fight, it appears that Salido has the style to beat Lopez no matter how many times they fight. However, a rematch between them will be fought in Lopez’s home country of Peurto Rico, meaning that if it goes to decision we could see Lopez winning a controversial decision. That could be the only way he beat Salido, because nobody knocks out Salido, not Lopez, not Gamboa and not even Juan Manuel Marquez.

Gamboa’s goal is to fight Manny Pacquiao, but the way that Gamboa looked against Daniel Ponce De Leon last Saturday night, it’s not likely to happen. Gamboa doesn’t have to frame to be able to move up to 140 and above.

Gamboa did say recently that he would come back down to 126 for a fight against Nonito Donaire after he moves up in weight from the bantamweight division where he’s currently fighting. Obviously, Gamboa sees the Donaire fight as the much more appealing option than taking on a guy like Lopez. I can’t blame him. Lopez will be mighty lucky if he can get past Salido in a rematch, and I can’t help thinking the only way Lopez will win is by a controversial decision while fighting at home. You never like to see a champion like Salido having to go to the challenger’s home country to fight. There’s something wrong about that.