Brandon Rios vs. Mike Alvarado 3 on January 24th in Bloomfield, Colorado

By Boxing News - 12/03/2014 - Comments

rios2By Dan Ambrose: With the careers of both fighters seemingly going downhill, former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (32-2-1, 23 KOs) and former WBO 140 pound belt holder Mike Alvarado (34-3, 23 KOs) will be facing each other next month in a rubber match on January 24th on HBO at the 1stBank Center, in Bloomfield, Colorado, USA.

It’s pretty much academic that neither of these guys are going anywhere in their perspective divisions. About the best they can hope for is to keep winning long enough to get a crack at Manny Pacquiao.

In the case of Rios, this would be a second shot at Pacquiao, because he was soundly beaten last year by Pacquiao. While it would seem illogical for Rios to be matched up again with Pacquiao given the one-sided nature of their previous fight, the fact is that Top Rank’s stable is a thin one around the 140-147 pound divisions, and you can’t rule Rios out for another fight with Pacquiao as long as he keeps winning.

Obviously, Rios can’t afford to be involved in any more strange fights like his last one with Diego Chaves, because that would taint a second encounter with Pacquiao. Rios was basically on his way to being beaten by Diego Chaves last August when the referee working the fight Vic Drakulich stopped the fight in the 9th round and gave Rios a victory by disqualification.

Chaves had supposedly thrown an elbow, although I never saw any elbow being thrown by him after watching the fight in slow motion. Had the fight not been halted in the 9th, Rios very well would have gone down to defeat.

A loss to Chaves would have pretty much put Rios on skid row in terms of his career. However, the victory, such as it is, keeps Rios’ career alive for a little while longer. All he needs to do now is beat Alvarado and keep beating the other guys in Bob Arum’s Top Rank stable until he gets another crack at Pacquiao.

Alvarado defeated Rios by a 12 round decision in their rematch in 2013 in March. Alvarado was able to out-box Rios by using movement and a strong jab. In their first fight in October of 2012, Rios was able to stop Alvarado in the 7th round. Alvarado tried to go toe-to-toe with Rios, but he didn’t have the chin or the stamina to fight in this manner against Rios.



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