rios7 By Dan Ambrose: If you saw Brandon Rios’ recent fight against Mike Alvarado last Saturday night then you may have noticed how heavy Rios was for the fight. Instead of being near the 140 lb. weight limit, Rios came into the fight reportedly weighing 161 pounds.

That’s 21 pounds of water weight Rios put on from Friday to Saturday and that’s just too much weight for someone who is campaigning as a light welterweight. Rios was pretty much a middleweight out there against Alvarado last Saturday, and completely lacking in muscle tone.

Rios didn’t look good after the 4th round and seemed to tire out in the second half of the fight in losing by a 12 round unanimous decision. I imagine Rios likes the idea of having an advantage in weight over his 140 pound opponents, but when you have to drain down in weight by 21 pounds the week before the fight that’s just not healthy.

I think a big reason for why Rios failed to perform as well in this fight as he did in the previous fight was the weight that he had to take off to make the 140 lb. limit. Taking off 21 pounds of water weight and then putting it back on within 24 hours has got to have had a negative effect on Rios just like it did when he drained himself last year in April to try and make 135 for his fight against Richard Abril.

Rios didn’t make weight for that fight, and he looked weak and sluggish in the second half of the fight. He thought his weight problems were taken care of after he moved up five pounds to fight at 140, but that’s clearly not heavy enough for him. Rios needs to honestly move up to 147, and even that might not be enough for him if he’s going to be coming into his fights weighing over 160.

Ideally, a fighter shouldn’t gain more than 10 to 12 pounds of water weight when rehydrating because when they start going more than that it leaves them weaker in a lot of cases. Rios moving up to 147 should be okay for now, but if he keeps getting bigger he’s going to need to move up to 154 in the new few years are sooner because he’s getting too heavy.