By Dan Ambrose: Brandon Rios (33-2-1, 24 KOs) and his trainer Robert Garcia are hoping that his win over Mike Alvarado last Saturday night can be used as a springboard for fights against Juan Manuel Marquez or Tim Bradley in 2015.
Rios looked good in destroying Alvarado in three rounds in a fight that was broadcast by HBO from Broomfield, Colorado. Rios’ trainer Robert Garcia initially mentioned wanting to have him face Victor Ortiz next, but Garcia now doubts whether HBO will ever agree to that fight perhaps due to Ortiz’s run of bad luck in fights against Luis Collazo, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Josesito Lopez and Marcos Maidana in the past.
Garcia would now like to see Rios face Marquez and Bradley.
“You know there are so many options. Cameron Dunkin [Rios’s manager] is going to handle that. You know we’re mentioning [Victor] Ortiz. Honestly, I didn’t think HBO would approve that fight but we would love to, we would love to,” Garcia told Esnewsreporting.com. “But, you know there are bigger names, bigger money fights; Marquez. I don’t think Marquez will fight him, but there’s Marquez. Hopefully, we can convince him to fight. Bradley is there.”
You’re not going to convince Marquez to fight Rios when there’s no upside for the 41-year-old Marquez to take that fight. Rios is currently belt-less in terms of him not a world champion. He won the WBO International welterweight title last Saturday against Alvarado, but that’s not a major title, and it’s not going to entice Marquez to fight Rios.
There’s no real incentive for Marquez to face Rios. It would be another tune-up bout similar to Marquez’s fight against Alvarado last May, and he’s not going to waste time fighting anymore tune-ups at this point.
If Marquez does fight again, which is uncertain at this point, it’s going to be for a world title against the likes of IBF 147lb champ Kell Brook or possibly against Pacquiao if he can get a bigger purse split than in the last time he fought Pacquiao in 2012.
Bradley will likely not be interested in facing Rios either, because it’s not a huge fight and there wouldn’t be a title on the line. Bradley already fought a Rios type fighter in his last bout against Diego Chaves, and he was given a controversial draw.
Bradley’s probably not going to be interested in facing Rios unless their mutual promoter Bob Arum throws some big money at him for the fight. It’ll likely require Bradley to get at least $2 million for him to want to fight Rios, and I don’t think that’s something that can be done by Arum unless he makes the Bradley-Rios fight a pay-per-view bout.
Rios will want at least $1 million for a fight against Bradley. He got $850,000 for the Alvarado fight, so you’ve got to assume that his price tag for a Bradley fight would be at least $1 million. I doubt HBO will want to pay that kind of money for that fight.
If Arum makes Bradley-Rios a pay-per-view bout, I can see very few people being willing to purchase it because neither guy is a pay-per-view fighter. Rios and Bradley have been on pay-per-view as the B-side in fights against Pacquiao, but they were brought in as the opponent and they didn’t bring much to the table as far as creating a lot of fan interest.
For Rios’ next fight, he’s probably going to need to be content with fighting someone like Diego Chaves, unless he turns that fight down, and I can see that happening. Chaves had his number last year when they fought.
Chaves was the better puncher of the two and he was lighting Rios up over and over again on the inside with uppercuts. Rios responded by doing a lot of head-butting when Chaves would tie him up. The referee working the fight was totally lost and not doing anything to stop the head-butting from Rios.
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