It has been a hard few years for Arnold Barboza Jr., the junior welterweight currently signed to Top Rank Inc, who is waiting for his big fight, which seemingly has never come. For the past four fights, Barboza has found him in fights that on paper, scream of ‘if you win this bout, you’re in the big fight’. Yet, that big fight has not happened.
During this time, Barboza defeated Alex Saucedo, Danielito Zorrilla, and Jose Pedraza - the Zorrilla fight was a main event fight in the L.A. area, but the rest were in the co-main event slot. Barboza recently took to Twitter to voice his frustrations. During the Stockton, California card, which was telecast on ESPN, ProBox TV News caught up with Rick Mirigian, Barboza Jr.’s manager to talk about the situation that Barboza is going through.
“So, Arnold Barbosa has been waiting for a big fight, and he's owed a big fight,” Barboza Jr.’s manager, Rick Mirigian said exclusively to ProBox TV News. “He's put his time in. He should have had it. Teofimo Lopez, Top Rank tried to make that fight - twice. Lopez turned him down twice. Barboza should have fought Lopez before Sandor Martin without question.”
Barboza Jr., known as not just a great fighter, but one of the nicest individuals in the sport of boxing, made an active crusade for Teofimo Lopez in 2022. This was only heightened when Junior Lopez, the father of Teofimo Lopez went on the The Fighter’s Voice podcast and to paraphrase it, called Barboza Jr., a ‘tune-up fight’. The normally calm, cool, and collected Barboza was angered and had a personal vendetta against Lopez, but mostly his father. Barboza Jr. sat ringside for the Pedro Campa fight and did all the things you would ask a fighter to do to get the fight, but it wasn’t to be. Jose Pedraza ended up landing the Teofimo Lopez fight, and when Pedraza pulled out, Sandor Martin not Arnold Barboza Jr. replaced him. Recently, Barboza Jr called out Regis Prograis in an exclusive to ProBox TV News - but when Prograis signed with Matchroom over Top Rank frustrations might have hit a boiling point.
It was also confided to ProBox TV News that Barboza at one point was offered a fight with Kenneth Sims Jr., and the team went in a different direction, and recently a WBO purse bid was set up for Barboza Jr., with Liam Paro that fell through. We reached out to Arnold Barboza Jr., though to be fair it was on Mother’s Day, and he was unable to comment on this situation at this time.
“Right now, Arnold's in the gym training, and he'll look to get an offer from Top Rank after June 10th [after the completion of] Teofimo Lopez vs. Josh Taylor and Haney next week and have concluded,” said Mirigian. “I hope to have a big name given to Arnold because that's what he deserves. Arnold's contract [with Top Rank] is up soon in August, depending on what happens with the next opponent, that could be something that he explores but he wants a big fight. I'm hoping Top Rank delivers that. I know they tried with all fairness, lately. They’ve tried to make big fights for him. But there's no one that deserves a bigger fight more and look as frustrated as he is right now. He's in a good situation. He'll be able to control his own destiny very soon."
