50 Cent to lead Gamboa's ring walk versus Farenas

The ring walk of former featherweight titleholder Yuriorkis Gamboa will be led by his promoter, rapper 50 Cent (aka, Curtis Jackson), of SMS Promotions, before he faces southpaw Filipino Michael Farenas on the undercard of the HBO-Pay Per View-televised fourth bout between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez on Dec. 8, according to Top Rank CEO Bob Arum.

"It's going to be really interesting when Gamboa comes into the ring on Dec. 8, because he'll be led by 50 Cent singing. I don't know one song from the other," said Arum.

"But this is going to be the first time that I can remember, and probably the first time in history, that a fighter's promoter is going to lead the fighter into the ring singing and rapping a signature song that he wrote."

The matchup between Gamboa (21-0, 16 knockouts) and Farenas (34-3-4, 26 KOs) is part of an already stacked card that will happen at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Arum said that he first met Jackson, who is represented by attorney Leon Margules, following the unanimous decision victory by RING middleweight champion Sergio Martinez that dethroned Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. as WBC beltholder in September at The Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.

"First time that I met him was at the Martinez-Chavez fight, and we had a post-fight party, he charmed all of the guests. He and [Top Rank President] Todd [duBoef] have become close," said Arum. 

"So this is definitely a history-making situation, because it's never happened before I got into boxing, and it hasn't happened since, so this is going to be the first time that I have ever seen it."

The Pacquiao-Marquez lineup also includes bouts between Mexican IBF lightweight titleholder Miguel Vazquez and undefeated southpaw Mercito Gesta, as well as a clash of unbeaten featherweights Javier Fortuna and Patrick Hyland.

Last November, Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KOs) won an unpopular and highly-disputed majority decision over Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KOs), who has also battled Pacquiao to a draw and suffered a split-decision loss. Pacquiao is coming off a controversial split-decision loss to Tim Bradley which dethroned him as WBO welterweight beltholder in June.

A Cuban Olympic gold medalist, Gamboa has not been in the ring since last September, when he decisioned current WBC featherweight beltholder Daniel Ponce de Leon. 

Farenas is 7-0-1, with two stoppage victories since falling by unanimous decision to Marlon Aguilar in May of 2010.

Vazquez (32-3, 13 KOs), who defended his belt via split-decision over Marvin Quintero last month, will make a the fifth defense of his belt against Gesta (26-0-1, 14 KOs), and Fortuna (20-0, 15 KOs) will pursue his third straight knockout against Hyland (27-0, 12 KOs).

Lem Satterfield can be reached at lemuel.satterfield@gmail.com