By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (31-2-1, 23 KO’s) sees himself at the brink of career implosion going into his August 2nd fight against #10 IBF Diego Chaves (23-1, 19 KO’s) at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Rios, 28, has lost his last two fights to Manny Pacquiao and Mike Alvarado, and not looked good at all in either of them.
While Rios’ trainer Robert Garcia has been quick to try and make excuses for his defeats, the fact of the matter is that Rios hasn’t looked like a world class fighter recently. It wasn’t so much that he was beaten by Pacquiao and Alvarado in his last two fights, it was how he was beaten. Rios looked like a punching bag in both fights and that’s troubling.
“This is a do or die fight for me,” Rios said via ESPN. “I know this fight is very important for my career. I am training extremely hard.”
It’s doubtful that Rios’ career will be over if he loses to Chaves, because his high powered promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank will no doubt be looking to match him up against Alvarado in a third fight. The casual boxing fans won’t have any clue that Rios’ career has reached the free fall state, as they’ll only care about him going toe-to-toe with Alvarado for as long as the fight lasts. However, a defeat to Chaves will definitely limit the way that Arum can use Rios.
He won’t be able to put him in with Pacquiao any more or match him against other world champions, because there’s no sanctioning body that would dare sanction a title defense by a champion against a fighter with three consecutive losses. I don’t think Arum would even dare to use him for a fight against Tim Bradley, who is coming off of a loss to Pacquiao and could use an easy fight against an easy to hit slugger like Rios.
Chaves is very much like Rios in terms of his skills and his game. He’s short like Rios at 5’7 1/2” and very easy to hit. He’s coming off of a win over Juan Alberto Godoy. But in his only fight in his 6-year pro career where he fought someone good, he was beaten by Keith Thurman last year in July in a 10th round stoppage. Chaves looked better than Rios in that fight, but not much better.
“I know that Ríos is a strong and difficult fighter. He is always a straight and a hard puncher,” Chaves said. “I am very confident in my boxing skills and I think that with speed and mobility I will win.”
The Rios-Chaves fight will be part of a triple-header on HBO on August 2nd. WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev will be fighting Blake Caparello in a mismatch in a separate venue in Atlantic City, New Jersey. On Rios’ undercard will be WBA light welterweight champion Jessie Vargas defending his title for the first time against the unbeaten Anton Novikov in a fight that promises to be a boring one for as long as it lasts. Isaac Chilemba will also be on the card against an opponent still to be determined.
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