By Dan Ambrose: Brandon Rios (31-2-1, 23 KOs) made weight today for his fight this Saturday night against Diego Chaves (23-1, 19 KOs) at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Rios weighed in at 147 pounds.
Surprisingly, Rios didn’t look nearly as weight-drained as he normally does for his weigh-ins. He still looked a little weight drained, but not to the extent for his recent fights.
Rios has been talking about having gone back to the basics for this fight and worked extra hard without the help of a strength and conditioning coach to help him shed the excess weight. Rios feels that he was drained from his workouts with his strength coach for his last two fights.
Chaves weighed in at 148 and looked good. He didn’t have the sign of a fighter that had drained water weight to get to the weight.
“I know Rios very well. I watched his last two fights against [Mike] Alvarado and [Manny] Pacquiao,” Chaves said via Dan Rafael of ESPN. “He’s big and strong. I need to get into a rhythm to get this win. He’s a warrior — a great one — but warriors can be beat. This will be war in the center of the ring.”
During the face off, Chaves looked noticeably shorter than Rios when they were standing eye to eye. Chaves looks like he should be fighting at 140 rather than 147. He definitely looks small for the weight class. During the stare down, Chaves seemed to be looking over Rios’ head rather than into his eyes.
When they were separated, Rios stood still staring at Chaves walking away. Rios had a look on his face as if he had won the war of intimidation. Hopefully, Rios isn’t counting on Chaves fighting scared tomorrow night because he might be sorely mistaken if the Argentinian comes on fire like he did against Keith Thurman last year.
Rios absolutely needs to win this fight, because he’s already lost his last two fights. If he gets beaten by Chaves then it’s going to leave Rios’ promoters at Top Rank with few options in how to use him. They won’t be able to use him for guys like Tim Bradley and Manny Pacquiao, because those doors will likely be closed permanently.
Top Rank might still be able to use Rios for a third fight against Mike Alvarado, but that’s pretty much it.
The winner of the Chaves-Rios fight is being mentioned as fighting former WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov next.
Other weights on the card
Jessie Vargas: 139.8 lbs.
Anton Novikov: 139.4 lbs
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