By Chris Robinson
Brandon Rios has been on a bit of a rollercoaster ride the past few days. On Monday, the former lightweight champion made the trek from his bases in Oxnard, California to Miami, Florida to attend a press conference to officially announce his April 14th bout with Cuban stylist Yuriorkis Gamboa. The only problem was that Gamboa, who had requested the presser be held in Miami, was nowhere to be found, as was the exact case for today’s follow-up presser in Los Angeles.
Gamboa was later spotted at the Mayweather Boxing Club in Las Vegas, Nevada, sending obvious mixed signals about what his exact plans are. BoxingScene.com had a detailed conversation with Gamboa's lawyer, who stated that the fight was off until his client resolved a few undisclosed promotional issues with co-promoters Top Rank and Arena-Box, which had seemed to be fine until talk of the Rios fight emerged.
Having traveled over 5,600 miles roundtrip in the span of a day, Rios showed obvious disdain towards Gamboa’s actions, ripping the former featherweight titlist left and right as I spoke to him on Tuesday evening.
Not overly-heated but more so disappointed with the entire situation, Rios vented to me about Gamboa’s disappearing acts the past few days, eyed other options if the fight falls through, including WBC lightweight champion Antonio DeMarco, and had some choice words for the man who he was certain he would be facing next month.
In his own words, this is what Rios had to share.
All that matters…
“You know, it is what it is. I guess Gamboa’s going to do whatever. It doesn’t bother me. As long as I show the fans that I showed up and I’m ready to fight, that’s all that matters. To show the fans that I’m not scared of nobody and that I’m ready to fight. Obviously this guy’s not ready to fight, has second thoughts about fighting me, and I don’t know what to say. I know what I’m doing and I’m doing what my job is supposed to be, getting ready and fight and getting ready for Gamboa. We’ll see what happens.”
Gamboa’s reluctance to make the fight…
“This coward didn’t want to fight. He never wanted to fight. He doesn’t want to fight. If he wanted to fight, he would have showed up to a press conference where was supposed to be going. He requested a press conference in Miami, so that’s why we went to Miami, because he wanted a press conference. So Top Rank did a press conference in Miami, his hometown, we went over there, no show. We came over here, no show. What else do we have to do to find out what’s up with this guy? It’s like trying to find ‘Where’s Waldo’ but we’re trying to find Gamboa.”
A slap in the face…
“Yeah, because it’s f**ked up because it is a slap in the face. I could have been training. I wasted all my f**king time going to Miami for this motherf***er, to not show up. I wasted my training, my preparation to get ready for this piece of sh*t and he’s not showing up. That’s a slap in the face. And it’s disrespectful too. Not only that, but to all his fans and everybody. I think it’s disrespectful.”
Why WBC lightweight champion Antonio DeMarco makes sense…
“Like I was telling Robert, the only person that makes sense right now, if I stay at 135, is fighting DeMarco for the WBC. If it’s not him then what’s the point of staying at 135? I’d rather fight at 140. The only reason why I would stay at 135 was to fight Gamboa. He was calling me out, he wanted to fight me, my manager Cameron Dunkin and [Top Rank CEO] Bob Arum said ‘Let’s make the fight happen’ and we made the fight happen. And now, he doesn’t want to fight. So he should have never called me out if he wasn’t for sure. Antonio DeMarco is the WBC champion so why not fight for that? Why stick around and fight someone at 135 that doesn’t make sense? It’s gotta be somebody that’s worth something.”
His confrontation with Richard Abril at the presser on Monday…
“I didn’t know who the f**k Richard Abril was. He came up to me and I just thought he was somebody from the crowd because I was in [Gamboa’s] hometown in front of his people. So I saw the guy was mad and he came up to me and said ‘I want to fight you’ and I said ‘What?’. And I asked who the f**k called him here and he said ‘I’m the champion, you aint sh*t’. I said ‘You want to fight me? There’s my manager right there. Talk to him motherf***er! I’ll fight you, you aint sh*t’. We just got into face to face, stared talking sh*t to each other and all of a sudden he pushed me in my face and he took off running. That’s a b*tch move right there too.”
Whether Gamboa is after more money…
“He’s being a little punk. That’s what’s going through his head. He’s getting paid one-point something million. I’m not even getting paid that sh*t. Plus, Todd [duBoef] said an extra $100,000 and he still don’t want to fight me? If he wins he gets an extra $100,000. Come on, what’s more motivation than that sh*t? That’s a lot of money. But he’s being a little b*tch about it.”
Unfazed by the mind games…
“Oh yeah, that doesn’t bother me. Him trying to play little mind games and sh*t, Floyd’s probably teaching him ‘Hey, let’s play mind games with him’. But that sh*t don’t bother me. That doesn’t bother me. I’m going to be ready for this little piece of sh*t. Whenever he’s ready I’m going to be ready and I don’t think he’s going to be ready. That’s why he didn’t show up. He’s scared.”
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