Yuriorkis Gamboa vs. Francisco Vargas in the works

By Boxing News - 01/06/2016 - Comments

gamboa0000By Allan Fox: Golden Boy Promotions are looking to put together a fight between WBC super featherweight champion Francisco Vargas (23-0-1, 17 KOs) and 34-year-old former IBF/WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (25-1, 17 KOs). It would be a good fight if it can be made.

Vargas recently stopped Takashi Miura in the 9th round last November in an exciting contest in Las Vegas, Nevada. Vargas, 31, was knocked down in the 4th round Miura, but he then came back to drop Miura in the 9th round to get the stoppage.

“We’ve mentioned it to 50 Cent [Gamboa promoter Curtis Jackson] and it’s a fight we’d like to make,” Golden Boy Promotions vice president Eric Gomez said to ESPN.com.

Gamboa recently had to battle hard to defeat Hylon Williams Jr. by a 10 round decision last December. Gamboa looked good for someone who been out of the ring for over a year without fighting. The fight was closer than a lot of boxing fans expected it to be, as Williams Jr. is not a major player at lightweight, and he wouldn’t have been able to fight competitively against the top lightweights like Terry Flanagan, Jorge Linares, Ismael Barroso, Felix Verdejo and Rances Barthelemy.

For Gamboa, he would need to drop down to 126lbs to fight Vargas for his WBC super featherweight title.

If the Gamboa-Vargas fight doesn’t take place, then Golden Boy will look to put Vargas back in with Miura for a rematch

“It was a great fight and we’d also be interested in doing a rematch if HBO is interested,” Gomez said about the Gamboa vs. Miura rematch. “Vargas can be ready to go as early as March. He wants big fights and he wants to be on HBO. There are good possibilities out there for Vargas,” Gomez said.

Golden Boy wants to put Vargas on the undercard of WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s next fight card on HBO pay-per-view on May 7th.

Besides potential fights against Gamboa and Miura, Golden Boy is also interested in putting Vargas in with WBO super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez for a unification fight. That might be a little more difficult to make that fight because the World Boxing Organization recently ordered Martinez to start negotiations for a title defense against his WBO #1 mandatory challenger Miguel Berchet.

If Martinez gets past Berchet, then he’ll likely look to face Orlando Salido in a rematch to clear the controversy surrounding their recent 12 round draw from last September. Salido appeared to be robbed in that fight by the judges.

There is a purse big scheduled for this Friday for WBC lightweight champion Jorge Linares (40-3, 27 KOs) and Dejan Zlaticanin (21-0, 14 KOs), according to Dan Rafael. The promoters for the two fighters are hoping to iron out a deal in order to avoid the purse bid, but it’s unclear if they’re going to be able to do this.

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The Linares vs. Zlaticanin fight could be televised on HBO. Linares has scored four consecutive knockouts over Ivan Cano, Kevin Mitchell, Javier Prieto and Ira Terry. The win over Mitchell was an impressive one for Linares, as he had to get up off the deck in the 5th round to comeback to get the stoppage.

The 5’4” Zlaticanin recently defeated the previously unbeaten Ivan Redkach by a 4th round knockout last year in June. In 2014, Zlaticanin defeated Ricky Burns by a 12 round split decision in an upset win.



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