rios0213 By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has made up his mind that boxing fans are demanding to see his fighter former WBA World lightweight champion Brandon Rios (31-0-1, 23 KO’s) fight Mike Alvarado (33-1, 23 KO’s) again, and Arum is going to give the fans what he feels they want by putting them together again for a rematch on March 30th instead of looking to match them against other opponents.

Arum said to RingTV “We’re looking at March 30 at the Mandalay Bay. It will be him squaring off against Mike Alvarado for a rematch. That’s a fight the fans want to see.”

I got an idea. How about Arum not put that tired rematch together and instead put Rios back in with the guy that beat him soundly, Richard Abril. That’s a fight that boxing fans would prefer to see rather than watching Rios beat up a guy he just knocked out in Alvarado.

Rios stopped Alvarado in the 7th round last October in ending that left no doubt who the better fighter of the two was. Why would Arum want to put Rios back in with Alvarado, other than the two fighters being Top Rank stable fighters? Doesn’t Arum have any other fighters in his stable that he can match them against? It’s a fight that doesn’t make any sense at all unless you’re seeing it as a move done to keep the fight in house because Arum doesn’t have a lot of fighters around that weight to put Rios and Alvarado in with.

I think this is a needless rematch, and I just hope this isn’t the beginning of a five-fight series like the Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez series. Arum would be much better off either signing some new light welterweights to his stable so he can keep the fights in house, if that’s the only way he can match them, or better yet match Alvarado and Rios up against fighters from other promotional stables.

I like that idea better because I don’t think Arum is going to be able to pick up any quality light welterweights in the near future to put his guys in with, so he might as will start working with other promoters to keep these guys busy.