Brandon Rios added to Cotto-Margarito undercard

By Dan Ambrose: WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios has officially been added to the December 3rd undercard of Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito II rematch at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York.

The fight card will be shown on HBO pay per view and will be selling for $54.95. Rios still doesn’t have an opponent picked out for his fight, but let’s hope it’s someone really good for that kind of money.

In addition to the Rios vs. TBA and Cotto-Margarito fights, the undercard will have unbeaten welterweight contender Mike Jones facing Sebastian Lujan, junior middleweight contender Pawel Wolak vs. TBA and light heavyweight prospect Mike Lee vs. TBA.

I don’t know that I’m all that excited about paying $54.95 to watch Jones in a mismatch and Wolak and Lee against to be determined opponents. I think Wolak and Jones are decent fighter, but I really can’t say I’m too excited about watching them on PPV. Maybe it’s just me but I just don’t see them as PPV worthy right now.

I think the Rios fight – if he’s matched against someone good – should be the main event and the Cotto-Margarito II fight put under it. Cotto-Margarito II isn’t a great fight anymore in my view. Bob Arum, their promoter, waited too long to make this fight happen and Margarito doesn’t look all that great anymore.

In fact, I would be surprised if he can beat any of the top ten contenders in the junior middleweight division. The division is a pretty weak one, but I still can’t see Margarito beating a top 10 contender. And I don’t see Cotto as a geniune champions at this point. He’s the WBA junior middleweight champion alright, but I don’t see him as the number #5 or #6 fighter in the division, and he could drop even further with some of the contenders improving.

For me, I just the Cotto vs. Margarito II fight as an old timers fight, sold to the boxing public, but not anywhere close to the fight it would have been had Arum matched them back up immediately after their first fight three years ago. Waiting three years to put them back together wasn’t a brilliant move in my eyes. Cotto is being matched carefully nowadays and hasn’t fought a tough opponent since 2009 when he was battered by Manny Pacquiao, and Antonio Margarito has lost two out of his last three fights. Margarito hasn’t beaten a quality opponent since he defeated Cotto in 2008. That tells me this is an old timers fight.

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