Winners And Losers From Yuriorkis Gamboa's Decision

The news today is that Yuriorkis Gamboa might be trying to get out of his fight contract with Brandon Rios and possibly making a move to Golden Boy Promotions. While this news is certainly disappointing for us fight fans, there will be significant fall out from trying to make this kind of move. So, let's take a step back from being incensed and try to look at some of the winners and the losers coming out of this situation. This list will not be a comprehensive list but just a couple of the winners and losers that come to mind.

Winners

Juan Manuel Lopez
JuanMa is the big winner in this entire situation. Top Rank had two big name featherweights, and after Lopez's loss to Orlando Salido, it seemed that Top Rank was going to throw its promotional muscle behind the talented Gamboa. Yet, with this episode happening during the build up to the rematch against Salido, Lopez will get a ton of accidental publicity. I fully expect Top Rank to heavily market Lopez if he beats Salido, especially with Gamboa out of the mix.

Brandon Rios
While we don't know who is going to be his next opponent, probably Richard Abril, it is going to be a much easier fight than Yuriorkis Gamboa. Gamboa has the speed and power to make it a very difficult fight for Bam Bam. Richard Abril lost to Hank Lundy, and Rios is light years better than Hank Lundy with all due respect to Hank Lundy. Also this fight could be at a catchweight or simply a higher weight class if Rios does not want to kill himself on the scales to get down to 135. Not exactly the worst situation for Bam Bam, even though the video from today's press conference suggests that he is quite angry.

Losers

Yuriorkis Gamboa
He must hate making money and love going to court. If/When he drops out of the fight with Rios, he is going to get sued for breach of contract by Top Rank. If he tries to go over to Golden Boy, Top Rank is going to sue him for breach of contract and possible tampering. I'm sure pulling a move like this is going to anger Bob Arum, so I don't expect Gamboa to be getting a decent fight anytime soon. Supposedly, Gamboa is under contract at Top Rank for the next two years, according to pakin power, so I see Bob using him for undercard showcase fights.

Golden Boy Promotions
Some people define insanity as someone who does the same thing multiple times and expects different results. They have tried to steal both Nonito Donaire and Manny Pacquiao with little success when those two fighters were under contract. Yet, they try again to go after Gamboa while he is still under contract. With these developments there is no chance that Top Rank and Golden Boy will work together to make a fight. A Top Rank fighter will not face a Golden Boy fighter for years. For the optimists who thought that Floyd-Manny fight was a possibility for November, kiss that thought goodbye, especially now that pictures have surfaced showing Gamboa training at Floyd's gym.

Clearly, there are more winners and losers in this situation but I just wanted to start the conversation, the rest is up to you. Who do you think are the big winners and losers in this situation?