In hindsight, yes, although all the fans (me included) wanted the fight, Gamboa was probably right to pull out, even though I think he could beat Rios.
Good chance he'd have taken it out of the judges' hands and stopped Rios, unlike Abril. Maybe not knocked him out cold with a single blow, but forced Drakulich to step in (or else be responsible for lawsuits when Rios' family came after him for medical bills due to the ensuing brain damage...)
No. I don't see that you can have the mindset that you might get robbed and lose your unbeaten record. Plus, if Gamboa was robbed, he could force a neutral rematch and prove he was the better fighter. Having a questionable or highly contraversial loss would hardly ruin his career.
True, plus I'm really leaning towards "Gamboa would have stopped him" the more I think about it. :think Of course, at the time Gamboa pulled out he wasn't to have known how drained and shitty Rios was going to be...unless he were to have made an educated guess based on the Murray farce...:think
