By Dan Ambrose: Top Rank has put the finishing touches on the rematch between light welterweight contenders Mike Alvarado (33-1, 23 KO’s) and Brandon Rios (31-0-1, 23 KO’s) for March 30th at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This is one of those fights where you have to ignore the big picture where you’re wondering why Bob Arum is making the fight again, and just focus on it as mindless entertainment that likely last long.
Rios already established that he’s the better fighter than Alvarado by knocking him out in the 7th round last October, but it looks like Arum is milking the fight for a couple of reasons. One, the fight brought in good ratings last time around, and that’s probably enough for Arum to want to keep putting them together in the absence of anything else for them. Secondly, Arum really doesn’t have much for either Rios or Alvarado, and so we might see him throw them in together another two or three more times if they stay competitive with one another.
All the top light welterweights are now with Golden Boy Promotions, and pretty much all Arum has is Rios and Alvarado unfortunately for them. So instead of seeing Alvarado and/or Rios progressing forward with their careers, they’re stuck fighting in each other over and over again in the same way that Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez keep getting put in with each other.
The fact that Rios struggled with Alvarado suggests that Rios’ talent is limited at 140. Breidis Prescott, an average fighter, dominated Alvarado until running out of gas and getting stopped by him in the 10th round in their fight in November 2011. Rios was badly schooled by Richard Abril last year in April, but was given a controversial decision. Rios and Alvarado are pretty much on the same level talent-wise, but not in the league in the league of the best light welterweights like Danny Garcia, Lucas Matthysse, Lamont Peterson and Amir Khan.
Comments are closed.