By Dan Ambrose: Juan Manuel Lopez (30-1, 27 KO’s) was supposed to be facing Rafael Marquez (39-6, 35 KO’s) in a needless rematch next, but Orlando Salido wrecked those plans by stopping Lopez in the 8th round on April 16th. Lopez now has to waste valuable time in his career going over old ground to try and hopefully avenge the loss to Salido rather than moving on for his money fight with Marquez and a fight with Gamboa. Instead of Lopez getting the rematch with the 36-year-old Marquez it may well be IBF/WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (20-0, 16 KO’s).

Bob Arum, the promoter for both Lopez and Gamboa, said recently that he may match Gamboa up with Marquez next. Why Arum doesn’t want to wait until Marquez at least gets one or two wins under his belt is unclear. Marquez was stopped in his last fight with Lopez and it seems kind of silly to feed him to Gamboa right after a loss. However, this is what happened with Orlando Salido. After getting beaten by Gamboa, Arum then put Lopez in with Salido immediately in a move that backfired on Arum when Lopez was shockingly stopped by Salido. On paper, it must have looked like a good move for Arum to make because Salido was clearly beaten by Gamboa. However, Salido had more than enough in the tank to take care of Lopez.

Ideally, Gamboa should be matched with some younger contenders rather than the recently beaten Marquez. Cellestino Caballero or Mikey Garcia would be excellent choices for Gamboa to fight instead of matching him with Marquez.