By Dan Ambrose: Brandon Rios’s next probable opponent is #7 WBA, #10 IBF, Diego Chaves (23-1, 19 KO’s) for a fight on August 2nd on HBO, along with WBA light welterweight champion Jesse Vargas defending his strap for the first time against a to be determined opponent. According to Dan Rafael of ESPN, it’ll be a split site triple-header with WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev defending his title at a separate site.
Rafael says that Rios’ management turned down a fight against tough Argentinian Luis Carlos Abregu. That makes a lot of sense because Rios would have likely taken a bad beating by Abregu. He’s not in that guy’s league in terms of punching power or skills. For that matter, Rios might not even be in Chaves’ league, because that guy is plenty tough and he gave Keith Thurman some problems last year before getting taken out in the 10th round. Thurman has to box Chaves because he getting nailed by some big shots early.
Rios can’t afford to lose to this guy if he wants to remain useful for Top Rank to use him for certain fights. He blew it badly in losing to Manny Pacquiao in November of last year in a fight in which Rios just took punishment for 12 rounds. Before that, Rios was out-boxed by Mike Alvarado in losing a 12 round unanimous decision last year in March by the scores 115-113, 115-113, and 114-113. The scores were close, but Rios looked bad in that fight too. He made Alvarado look like a slick boxer, which he shouldn’t have looked like that if Rios had been quicker on his feet.
Chaves, 28, has fought once since his loss to Thurman, in beating Juan Alberto Godoy by a 3rd round TKO last February. It was a good win, but it wans’t a good enough opponent to tell is anything.
With the beating that Rios took against Pacquiao, you have to wonder how much he’s got left in the tank at this point. That was a bad beating, and it’s surprising that Rios’ trainer Robert Garcia didn’t pull the plug on the fight by throwing in the towel.
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