(Photo credit: Ed Mulholland/HBO) By Dan Ambrose: #10 IBF Diego Chaves (23-1, 19 KOs) plans on finding out what Brandon Rios (31-2-1, 23 KOs) has left in the tank tonight by taking the fight to Rios in the center of the ring and testing his chin in a way that he’s not been tested before.
Rios has taken beatings in his last two fights against Manny Pacquiao and Mike Alvarado in losing both fights. The kind of punishment that Rios has taken sometimes causes deterioration in a fighter. If there is any, Chaves will bring it out because he’s going to be looking to knock Rios out with every shot he throws.
“This will be war in the center of the ring,” Chaves said.
It’ll be surprising if Rios doesn’t accommodate Chaves by meeting him in the center of the ring to trade, but anything’s possible for Rios. He’s desperate at this point to win a fight and he’s probably been listening to his trainer Robert Garcia to try and box Chaves instead of slugging it out with him.
The confident Rios that fought Alvarado and Pacquiao would no doubt be fighting Chaves in the center of the ring, but I’m not too sure this version of Rios is going to want to do that. The last thing he wants is to get whipped again and Chaves has the power to do that to him.
Here’s how this fight shapes up:
Power: This is an easy one for Chaves. While he’s shorter and smaller than Rios, he still punches with more power and is able to deliver a greater variety of shots. Chaves can literally throw power shots from every angle and hurt you. With Rios, he’s kind of a basic fighter with him throwing a lot of upper cuts and right crosses.
Speed: Chaves has the advantage in this category as well. Rios is slow and it’s easy to get out of the way of his shots because he also telegraphs them.
Defense: Like a lot of Argentinian fighters, Chaves has excellent defensive skills and is able to pick off shots with his gloves. He moves out of the way of shots by leaning back and retreating when attacked. Rios pretty much walks into shots and blocks them with his head. He can pick of shots with his gloves, but he’s not particularly good at it.
Boxing Skills: Chaves is by far the better boxer than Rios. Chaves is able to move around the ring, avoid shots, and jab his opponents. Rios is a straight ahead brawler who doesn’t back up or move laterally. It’s all straight ahead stuff with him. He’s either coming forward or standing stationary when he meets stiff resistance.
Punch resistance: This is kind of an unknown area in terms of picking one fighter over the other. We know that Rios has a good chin, but we don’t know much about Chaves because he’s been knocking out most of his opponents early during his career. We just have that one fight with Keith Thurman where he was halted last year.
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