By Chris Williams: Bob Arum has added a Cuban vs. Filipino match-up to his Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez 4 HBO pay per view fight card on December 8th with the addition of Cuban former two time featherweight champion and one time Olympic gold medalist Yurirokis Gamboa (21-0, 16 KO’s) facing Filipino #8 WBA Michael Farenas (34-3-4, 26 KO’s) MGM Grand, Grand Garden Arena, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

This won’t be a competitive fight because Gamboa is leagues better than the 28-year-old Feranas. It’s more of a bout that Arum has added to please the large amount of Filipino boxing fans that will be purchasing the fight card on PPV, as well as all the Filipino fans that will be watching from around the world.

Adding Farenas to the card will make it more interesting for a lot of the Filipino fans of Pacquiao. Arum already has Filipino Mercito Gesta, an unbeaten lightweight, facing IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez in the co-main event on the card. Arum also has Filipino welterweight Dennis Laurente facing Kenny Abril, and Filipino featherweight Dodie Boy Penalosa Jr facing a still to be determined opponent.

Gamboa, #14 WBO, hasn’t fought since September of last year in a win over Daniel Ponce De Leon. Gamboa chose to get out of his contract with Top Rank after they scheduled him to fight former WBA World lightweight champion Brandon Rios. Gamboa signed with 50 Cent and has done zero until now.

Gamboa should be able to destroy Feranas with no problems unless the time off from boxing has eroded his skills. Gamboa needs to make up for lost time because he missed at least four fights in the past year with inactivity and he’s in danger of wasting his once promising career.

It would be interesting if Gamboa could move up to lightweight to challenge WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner. That would be a great fight. However, Gamboa is only 5’5 1/2″ and it’s doubtful that he could put on enough size to compete with the hard hitting Broner.