By Chris Williams: Top Rank fighter Brandon Rios (31-0-1, 25 KO’s) looks to be heading for an unnecessary rematch against Mike Alvarado in late March. It’s a strange fight that Bob Arum has put together because there’s no real point in this rematch taking place because Rios destroyed Alvarado last October in a 7th round knockout victory, but Arum thinks boxing fans want to see the fight again so he’s going to shove it down their throats instead of putting Rios in with some new blood.
Rios says wants to fight WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia or interim WBC light welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse this year.
Rios said to Jenna Jay at doghouseboxing.com “My goal is to fight Danny Garcia for the WBC title belt, because that’s the belt I want. I would love to fight Lucas Matthysse.”
Poor Rios, he wants to fight Garcia and Matthysse and the reality is he probably never will get that chance during his career unless he leaves Top Rank or if those fighters leave Golden Boy Promotions. Because of the cold war that’s going on between the two promotional U.S powerhouses they’re not matching their fighters against each other.
Rios is aware of that and he seems resigned to the fact that he’ll not get the opportunity to fight these guys. Instead of fighting Matthysse and Garcia, we’re seeing Rios fight Alvarado again. Arum doesn’t have a lot of options for Rios. He can match him with Manny Pacquiao or Tim Bradley, but that’s pretty much it in terms of his stable around that weight class.
Sure, Arum can put Rios with Mercito Gesta but that guy just took an embarrassing loss to IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez, so it’s a fight that boxing public would care about. Pacquiao just got hammered by Juan Manuel Marquez, and there’s a good chance the Filipino will taste the canvas again in 2013 when he faces Marquez in a rematch in September.
At that point I think any chance that there ever was of a fight between Rios and Pacquiao will go out the window because I don’t see Pacquiao sticking around too much longer. Bradley vs. Rios is a fight that probably will get made in the near future unless Bradley gets beaten this year by one of his contenders.
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