Rios: Matthysse would be a harder fight than Danny Garcia

By Boxing News - 12/06/2012 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Once Brandon Rios faces Manny Pacquiao next April in their pay per view bout, Rios says he wouldn’t mind taking on WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia or WBA interim light welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse. Rios thinks Matthysse would be the much harder fight, however, as he sees him as having good power. Rios doesn’t rate Garcia as a big puncher for some reason.

Speaking with thaboxingvoice.com, Rios said “I’ll knock Danny Garcia out…I would love to fight Lucas Matthysse. I think Matthysse would be a harder fight than Garcia. Danny Garcia doesn’t punch hard. He just knocks out older fighters or guys like Amir Khan, someone with no chin.”

I think it’s not probable that Rios will look to fight Garcia or Matthysse after the Pacquiao fight because the drop off in pay would be huge for Rios. If anything, Rios will be looking to get a rematch with Pacquiao or take on fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr, Saul Alvarez, Tim Bradley, or Robert Guerrero. Facing those guys would give Rios another big payday, especially with Mayweather and Alvarez. Garcia and Matthysse aren’t at the level where they’ll get Rios the kind of money that he’ll be getting in his fight with Pacquiao next year.

Another huge and possibly fatal obstacle preventing a Rios vs. Garcia or Rios vs. Matthysse fight from taking place is the fact that Rios fights for Top Rank, while Garcia and Matthysse fight for Golden Boy Promotions. Bob Arum of Top Rank probably won’t be all that interested in doing Golden Boy any favors by matching his fighter against those guys because of their past problems.

Those are also dangerous fights for Rios, as he could very well lose. He got a questionable decision victory over the Mayweather-esque Richard Abril in April of this year, and Rios was losing his last fight against Mike Alvarado up untilt the moment Rios knocked Alvarado out in the 7th round last October.



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