Featherweights on slow path to showdown

NEW YORK – Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa will have a busy year if Bob Arum’s plan unfolds the way he wants.

Few promoters in boxing are as skilled at building a big fight as the Top Rank boss, who has followed a similar blueprint for decades.

He meticulously chooses the right opponents, uses his marketing acumen to raise the fighters’ profiles and, perhaps most importantly, demonstrates the patience to forego a big payday for an even bigger one down the road.

Lopez and Gamboa were electrifying in a pair of knockout wins Saturday night, Lopez grabbing the WBO featherweight belt in the seventh round and Gamboa retaining his WBA belt in the second.

It makes sense to match them together, two of the sport’s rising stars, just not right now.

“I want these guys to go against every great featherweight out there this summer,” Arum said. “Then when everybody is panting about these guys, do a big, big blowout kind of show. I mean, I promote both of them, I owe it to them to make the biggest possible show that translates to them the biggest amount of money they can make, and then we’ll see who’s better.”

It’s the same plan that Arum followed when he built Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera toward a title fight, and Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns.

“I had Morales fight Barrera, and they were two Mexicans, two little guys, and they ended up making millions of dollars each,” Arum said. “Don’t I owe it to them to build it?”

The next step toward Lopez and Gamboa, which might not happen until 2011, is for the pair to headline a split-site doubleheader. Lopez would defend his new title in his native Puerto Rico, while Gamboa – a Cuban defector – would defend in his adopted hometown of Miami.

Besides, it’s not as if there aren’t plenty of intriguing fights for them in what is quickly becoming one of boxing’s marquee weight classes.

One of the names Arum mentioned is titleholder Chris John, the unbeaten Indonesian who dominated Rocky Juarez last fall. Then there’s junior featherweight Celestino Caballero, and the winner of a fight between Mario Santiago and Bernabe Concepcion scheduled for Feb. 13.

“I’ve got two horses and I want them to wipe out everybody in the featherweight division and when they finally meet, people will go crazy,” Arum said.

Lopez (28-0, 25 KOs) and Gamboa (17-0, 15 KOs) undoubtedly have what it takes to become major attractions, Arum boldly proclaiming that one of them will be the next Manny Pacquiao.

“(Lopez is) a good fighter and a better man,” said Steven Luevano, who was greeted by Lopez in the locker room after their fight at Madison Square Garden. Lopez wanted to make sure Luevano was OK after a brutal knockout, and the two shook hands before he gave his opponent’s wife a big hug.

“No one would do what he just did,” Luevano said.

Until they face each other, Lopez and Gamboa will continue on parallel paths, building their appeal and their résumés until the moment arrives when both of them can cash in.

“Don’t I owe it to my two guys to build this into the biggest fight I can?” Arum said. “It will be a huge, huge fight, but not right now.”