By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (31-2-1, 23 KO’s) will be returning to the ring on July 19th to fight in Las Vegas or Los Angeles, Rios says. He’s lost his last two fights to Manny Pacquiao and Mike Alvarado, and looked poor in both of the losses. Rios still doesn’t have an opponent picked out for the fight though.
Rios had been hoping that he would get a title shot against WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov, but Top Rank didn’t set that fight up for some reason. It’s perhaps a good thing that they didn’t because Rios would likely have been drilled by Provodnikov and turned into a punching bag by him in the process.
“Looks like July 19 we will be returning to the ring, possibly in Vegas or LA,” Rios said. “Top Rank and my manager Cameron Dunkin are working on opponent and location.”
Top Rank is going to need to drop Rios down a couple of levels if they want him to stop losing, because there’s not a lot of guys that they can put him in with without a risk of him getting beaten badly again. If they take a chance to match Rios up against WBA light welterweight champion Jessie Vargas, they could end up with pie in their face if Rios fails to make weight. The same for a fight against WBO champion Provodnikov. Rios struggled to make 147 for his last fight against Pacquiao, and that’s not a good sign if Top Rank wants to try and use him for a title shot at 140.
With two straight losses, it’ll look really bad if Rios gets a title shot in his next fight, so Bob Arum is probably going to be looking to match him against a lower level fighter in order to get a sure thing victory.
Rios was beaten pretty badly by Pacquiao last year in Macao, China. It was a career high payday for Rios, but it was such a one-sided loss for him. It was especially sad after the fight when Rios said to HBO’s Max Kellerman “What do you think, Man? You was watching it. Do you think I’m a punching bag?” Of course, Kellerman didn’t tell Rios that he had looked like a punching bag in the fight, but it was a sad exchange between the two of them none the less. Rios’ face was badly swollen up by Pacquiao’s heavy punches, and he’d little more than a punching bag for him for 12 rounds.
If Rios isn’t able to turn his career around with some solid wins, you have to figure that Top Rank could wind up cutting him lose at some point. Rios really needs to start winning, and it’s going to be tough for him because he doesn’t seem to be the same fighter he once was since he left the lightweight division. When he was fighting at that weight, he was big for the weight and that obviously gave him an advantage over his opponents. But now that he’s fighting at 147 and 140, he’s not able to use size to win his fights.
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