rios By Tim Fletcher: Former WBA lightweight belt holder Brandon Rios (33-2-1, 23 KOs) will be making his first appearance in 10 months when he faces WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (32-1-1, 12 KOs) next month on November 7th on HBO from the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Rios, 29, needs a win over Bradley to get back to the top where he’s been absent for so many years. Rios hasn’t had a world title in his possession since 2011.

Bradley’s new trainer Teddy Atlas is going to be focusing on trying to prevent him from slugging so much in this fight. Atlas wants Bradley to fight smart, which means using movement to keep from getting caught in any wars.

Atlas realizes that Bradley gets in trouble when he tries to slug with his stronger opponents, and that’s why he wants him to go back to fighting the hit and run style that he used to defeat Juan Manuel Marquez in 2013. It’s not a crowd pleasing style of fighting for Bradley, but he can win using that style. The name of the game is to win and hold onto his WBO tile.

“The way to beat Tim Bradley is to put on pressure in the fight and try to knock him out,” Rios’ trainer Robert Garcia said. “We plan to cut off the ring and turn this into a real fight. We are not concerned with his change in a chief trainer because Bradley always comes in top condition and is ready to fight. Joel Diaz did a good job with Bradley.”

Atlas is obviously aware that Rios will be putting a lot of pressure on Bradley. That’s why he’s likely going to have Bradley trying every trick in the book to keep from being cornered by Rios on November 7th. You can expect to see a lot of holding by Bradley as well as movement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP4bX-TUE1E

I don’t know whether Bradley can move for 12 solid rounds without tiring and getting caught in a war. The 32-year-old Bradley isn’t as young as he was two years ago when he fought Marquez, and for that reason I don’t know if he’s going to be able to run around the ring to keep from getting caught by the hard hitting Rios long enough.

Bradley was hurt in the 12th round in his last fight by Jessie Vargas last June at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Vargas nailed Bradley with a big right hand that had him out on his feet in the last seconds of the fight.

Fortunately for Bradley, the referee Pat Russell became confused and halted the fight with 10 seconds left. As hurt as Bradley was in the fight, the question that you have to ask is whether there are any lingering after effects from that fight.

If that incident diminished Bradley’s ability to take big shots, we could see him get hurt at some point by Rios in this fight. Once Rios has an opponent hurt, he’s very good at finishing them off.

“We are ready for the best Tim Bradley, the one who beat Juan Manuel Marquez,” Rios said. “I want to get back on top in boxing. Bradley is in my way. Bradley is going to be my ticket back to the top.”

If Rios beats Bradley to pick up the WBO title, he’s still going to have a lot of troubles hanging onto the title. Rios’s promoter Bob Arum is likely going to lean on him to agree to fight Bradley in a rematch, and then likely face Terence Crawford. Rios would have problems with a fighter like Crawford, especially if Arum can talk Rios into fighting Crawford at a catch-weight that would benefit him and hurt Rios.