Brandon Rios vs Yuriorkis Gamboa In Jeopardy After Gamboa Skips Press Conference

It looks like one of the most highly anticipated fights of the year may be in jeopardy as Yuriorkis Gamboa skipped the press conference for his planned HBO bout with Brandon Rios. This fight, which was planned for April 14, was to be a brilliant battle of speed and power with Gamboa deciding to do the gutsy thing and jump up two weight classes to fight a huge lightweight in Rios.

But, as tweeted by Steve Kim, it looks like that could all be falling apart:

Yuriorkis Gamboa was a no-show to the presser today in Miami, no dobut, the Rios-Gamboa fight is in jeopardy from what Im told

Word is that Floyd Mayweather associate Tommy Smalls has been whispering in Gamboa's ear

And Gamboa is supposedly in Las Vegas, now. So right now, Rios and HBO need a dance partner for April 14th

This would be a shame and would be a moment that significantly damages the reputation of Gamboa.

I fully agree with Steve Kim that Gamboa should be banned from HBO if he does pull out of the bout. There was significant interest in this bout from fans and close to 5,000 tickets had already been sold for the Mandalay Bay showdown.

For Gamboa, it was a chance to make his name in a fight that I felt was very winnable. Rios had the power to hurt him, but he was going to have to catch him first. It's entirely possible that Yuriorkis could have used his speed and footwork to get in and out and perplex the straight ahead style of Rios.

We'll have much more as any official word comes out on Rios vs. Gamboa including any replacement opponent if Gamboa actually does withdraw from the fight.