By Jim Dower: Former WBO light welterweight champion Mike Alvarado (34-3, 23 KOs) had a weak excuse for losing to Brandon Rios (33-2-1, 24 KOs) in a 3rd round TKO defeat on Saturday night after Alvarado quit on his stool after the 3rd round at the 1st Bank Center, in Broomfield, Colorado.
Alvarado said he failed to train for the fight. He said he wasn’t 100 percent due to him having not committed himself to the correct training.
The fight was stopped due to Alvarado complaining of vision problems after the 3rd. He suffered an eye injury in the 1st round when he was hit by an uppercut by Rios in he left eye. Alvarado says he had problems seeing out of the eye after that round.
“I was still getting in my zone, moving and whatnot, but he hit my left eye with an uppercut. I couldn’t see. My vision wasn’t there so I made the call,” Alvarado said. “I’m not done yet, at all. I was far from being at my best. I guarantee everybody in this place, I will be back.”
The 34-year-old Alvarado will need to improve a lot in his future fights if he’s to get back to his best. He says he’s still hitting his prime, but it didn’t look like that tonight.
It looked like Alvarado wanted to use movement to avoid exchanging with Rios early in the fight, but he wasn’t able to move well enough to avoid Rios cutting off the ring on him and nailing him with uppercuts and hooks to the head. Alvarado took a lot of punishment in the 1st round alone and ended up bleeding out of his nose.
“It was all in the preparation of my training. I wasn’t training like I should have been. That’s what I get. I gotta get back to the drawing board and get back on it,” Alvarado said. “I ain’t done yet. I’m not making excuses for myself saying ‘at least I gave it all I got.’ I didn’t give it all I got, so that’s what I get. Whatever…I wasn’t prepared as I should have been. That’s what I get. It is what it is. Whatever.”
It’ll be surprising if Top Rank, the promoters for Alvarado decide on keeping him as part of their stable. When you have a fighter like Alvarado, who has now lost 4 out of his last 5 fights, it puts his promoter in a position where they need to ask themselves is it worth it to keep him under contract with them.
What’s worse is that Alvarado could end up missing fight time due to a potential jail term he’s looking at for being arrested recently with a handgun being found in his automobile.
Alvarado is a convicted felon, and being caught with a gun inside of his career could lead to him doing some time. Alvarado will be turning 35-years-old in July, and that’s a ripe age for someone doing jail time and having lost 4 out of his last 5 fights.
Alvarado wasted too much time tonight by waiting too long before he started to throw punches. He just took shots in the 1st and 2nd rounds. By the time he started to let his hands go in the 3rd, he was already bloody and battered.
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