By Chris Williams: Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) has got off to an early start for his training in Oxnard, California to get ready for his November 23rd fight against Manny Pacquiao Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.
Rios, 27, plans on beating the soon to be 35-year-old Pacquiao and sending him into a permanent retirement.
Pacquiao and Rios’ mutual promoter Bob Arum said to tempo.com.ph “He’s [Rios] been reporting to the gym.”
This is pretty surprising because Rios usually doesn’t start working out until training camp starts and that’s been one of his problems with him getting so heavy in between fights.
This time, Rios is raring to go and is coming off the leash looking to get ready to finish Pacquiao off by knocking him out like Juan Manuel Marquez did last December.
Rios has already said that he wants to make Pacquiao and his team sorry that they selected him to fight because he’s not some easy target that you choose to ease your way back into competition with. Rios feels that his big power will be too much for Pacquiao to take, especially with him coming off of a vicious knockout loss like the one he suffered against Marquez.
Rios is also coming off of a loss of his own in getting beaten by Mike Alvarado last March. However, Rios’ loss was by a 12 round unanimous decision and it was a close fight. He was dominated and he certainly wasn’t knocked out like Manny was. Rios’ loss came down to the fact that Alvarado ran from him for 12 rounds, making it all but impossible for Rios to land his big power shots.
Pacquiao probably won’t do that. Even Pacquiao wanted to run, it’s highly doubtful that his aging legs would let him. They’d start cramping up on him and he’d be like a wounded duck with nowhere to go with an attacking young lion coming after him.
I think Pacquiao is going to be lucky if he can make it out of this fight without getting knocked out. I don’t see him being able to go the full 12 rounds with Rios. The guy hits too hard, he never stops punching, and he’s too young for Pacquiao.
The question is will Rios send Pacquiao into retirement if he beats him? I think if Pacquiao makes bundles upon bundles of that green cash that Arum thinks he will from the Chinese pay per view money, I don’t see him walking away from the sport.
If Pacquiao is able to make well over $30 million or more from this fight on PPV, I can see him fighting until the well goes dry in Macau. The Chinese population is too huge and if Arum can tap that big population with PPV, Pacquiao and Arum will have big smiles on their faces no matter what the outcome is on November 23rd.
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