By Mohammed Abulkhair: In what promises to be a candidate for fight of the year, Two sluggers Brandon “BAM BAM” Rios (30-0-1, 22 KOs), and “Mile High” Mike Alvarado (33-0, 23 knockouts), will be facing each other on October 13th at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

Both fighters love to box toe to toe, and both keep coming forward with non –stop action. This is really a toss-up fight; neither of them have great technical abilities, however, they both have the will, and the heart to persevere through adversity.

Brandon Rios was having major difficulties in making the 135 pound limit. “Bam Bam” looked terrible in his last fight against Richard Abril, a fight that I thought Abril was robbed big time. If Rios is steered clear away from boxers who are not one dimensional then he can find success at Jr Welterweight. Abril set the blueprint in how to beat Rios, However, there are not many boxers at Jr Welterweight who have Abril’s style. Mike Alvarado is the total opposite of Abril pertaining to their styles.

Alvarado is a perfect fight for Rios; due to Rios brawler type style. The Colorado native will be the strongest opponent that Rios will face in his career; Alvarado has been fighting at Jr Welterweight and Welterweight since his professional debut. However, when Rios fought at 135 he would usually come in weighing around 150 or 147, so Rios truly is a natural Welterweight.

Mike Alvarado has shown that he has what it takes to be fighting the best at Jr Welterweight. His fights with Bredis Prescott, and Mauricio Herrera were action filled bouts and fight of the year contenders. He was losing against Prescott until the 10th round when Alvarado connected with beautiful left and right uppercuts that put Bredis on the floor, and finally got him the TKO victory. Alvarado has an amazing chin, and stamina that could be troublesome for Rios going in the later rounds.

Rios sometimes tends to fatigue in the later rounds, and Alvarado is not the kind of guy you want to be in with when you start breathing hard because he will take advantage of that. However, there are a couple flaws that could be seen with Alvarado. One major flaw is Alvarado tends to swell and cut up very easily, and if Rios targets the face early we can see a stoppage due to a cut or several cuts. However, Alvarado believes that he will get the victory, he was quoted saying on RingTV “I think that the fight’s going to be stopped. Brandon’s tough and he can take a shot, but we’ll see how tough he is and what sort of a shot he can take”.

Rios will be in a make or break fight; if he loses to Alvarado I cannot really see Rios excelling further in his career because it will only get tougher. I believe Brandon should have taken a little tune up to showcase his 140 pound debut, due to how poorly he looked against Abril. However, this will be a tough fight for both opponents it pretty much all comes down to who wants it more, and who will be able to withstand the pressure and the punches. May the best fighter win!

Thank you for reading. Please comment as I would like to read all points of views. Thank you.