By Dan Ambrose: Promoter Bob Arum hasn’t changed his mind about him wanting the winner of this Saturday’s fight between WBO welterweight champion (32-1-1, 12 KOs) vs. Brandon Rios (33-2-1, 24 KOs) to fight either Saul “Canelo” Alvarez if he beats WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto on November 21st, or Manny Pacquiao on April 9th.
Arum is only extending the invitation for the Pacquiao fight to Bradley if he comes out victorious. Arum does not want Rios to fight Pacquiao again because their previous fight was so one-sided in 2013.
It’s going to be a tough sell for Arum and HBO to try and push a fight between Canelo and the winner of the Bradley-Rios fight on HBO PPV, if that’s what Arum has in mind. If all he cares about is having Bradley or Rios fight Canelo on regular HBO, then that’s no big deal.
It would be another Canelo vs. James Kirkland type mismatch, but probably much worse because of how small Bradley and Rios are compared to the 175lb Canelo. But it’s also going to be tough for Arum to sell a third fight between Pacquiao and Bradley.
There’s no demand in another rematch between Pacquiao and Bradley, because their last fight was a mismatch in 2014. It wasn’t quite as bad as the Pacquiao-Rios fight, but it wasn’t far behind that.
“I’m interested in seeing the changes with Teddy Atlas,” Arum said via husleboss about Bradley’s new trainer. “I don’t know [what Bradley will be like]. We’re going to see on Saturday. He’s [Rios] a terrific fighter, especially when he’s motivated. I think if Bradley wins, he can either fight Pacquiao in a third fight or Canelo, if Canelo beats [Miguel] Cotto. Brandon Rios can fight Canelo if Canelo beats Cotto. I wouldn’t put Rios with Manny because Manny quite easily beat Rios last time they fought,” Arum said.
I don’t think boxing fans want to see circus-like mismatches between small pumped up lightweights and light welterweights against a hulking middleweight in denial in the 175lb Canelo. While Canelo tries to say he’s not a middleweight, he’s definitely a middleweight near the upper level in terms of weight for the class.
There are some middleweights that are bigger than Canelo, but not a lot of them that are able to fight at a high level. When you start getting bigger than Canelo for the 160lb division, it’s too hard for fighters to trim off all that weight to make the 160lb division limit.
If you toss a tiny Bradley or Rios in with a hulking middleweight like Canelo, it’s got mismatch written all over it. This would be worse than Canelo’s mismatch against former light welterweight Josesito Lopez in 2012. If you remember that fight, Lopez moved up in weight from the 140lb division to fight Canelo, and it wasn’t even a fight. Canelo came into the fight looking like a light heavyweight and he just blew away a flabby Lopez in five one-sided rounds.
Rios and Bradley will need to really bulk up for a fight against Canelo if they try and fight him while rehydrated to just 150+, they’ll find themselves squashed by the 175lb Canelo.
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