By Chris Williams: Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) doesn’t like the idea that some boxing fans see him as tune-up bout for the much more popular Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) on November 23rd at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.
Rios thinks fans instead should be questioning why Pacquiao is seemingly making a huge mistake in choosing him to fight instead of a soft touch to make sure he’s okay after his knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez.
Rios said to RingTV “How come they’re not saying that he [Pacquiao] picked a bad time to fight me, because he’s coming off of 2 losses; one loss was a knockout, and he’s fighting a monster like me, a beast that loves to fight. Somebodies going down and it’s not going to be me.”
The wise fans are saying that Pacquiao has picked a rotten time to be fighting a slugger like Rios. The smart fans realize that Manny hit his zenith in 2009, and it’s been pretty much downhill since then with Pacquiao looking steadily worse with each fight. Fans that only remember Pacquiao of 2009 and earlier, see Rios as a tailor-made opponent for Pacquiao and easy to beat up and look good against.
Fans who have seen Pacquiao fights in the last three years and studied how Pacquiao’s performances have been slipping with each fight, believe that Pacquiao has picked a terrible time to be fighting Rios. The timing is wrong in every way.
This is the type of guy that Pacquiao needed to fight earlier in his career, not when he’s coming off of two losses. You can really call it three straight losses because Pacquiao’s win over Marquez in 2011 was a loss in the eyes of many boxing fans.
Pacquiao is going to have to avoid exchanges with Rios if he wants to make sure he gets though this fight without getting injured. It’s too risky for him to be slugging it out with him at Pacquiao’s age. He needs to box, and make sure he doesn’t get hit in the head too much.
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