By Jason Kim: Brandon Rios (29-0-1, 22 KO’s) will be getting a chance to regain his WBA World lightweight title on April 14th in a fight against Richard Abril (17-2-1, 8 KO’s) for the vacant WBA world lightweight title at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Rios, 25, was stripped of his WBA title last December when he failed to make weight for his fight against John Murray. Rios would turn around and win the fight by an 11th round TKO victory, but his title was lost on the scales. He’ll get the chance to regain if if he can make weight for the fight against the Cuban Abril. Rios reportedly has a nutritionist to help him with his diet so that he won’t have to struggle to make weight like he did last time.

However, it’s questionable whether even a nutritionist is going to be able to help Rios in staying at lightweight for long, because he’s still filling out and will likely have an even tougher time in the future. The good news is it probably won’t matter if he starves himself for five days before his bout against Abril like he did against Murray, because Abril can’t punch and doesn’t have much hand speed. Abril is ranked #1 by the WBA, but he’s not in Rios’ class and will likely lose by a knockout or a lopsided decision.

Even a weight drained Rios will be too much for Abril in my estimation. Rios hits too hard and is a much better fighter on the inside than the 5’11” Abril is. Rios will probably have to chase Abril down, because the Cuban fighter likes to hit and then immediately back up to avoid getting hit in return. Abril will slug if he senses Rios is vulnerable, but I doubt he’ll even try that in this fight because he’ll know that he stands no chance at beating Rios by trying to slug with him. That would be playing into Rios’ hands if the light hitting Abril tried to mix it up with him by standing and trading in a toe-to-toe war.