Brandon Rios waiting to fight Pacquiao-Marquez winner next April

Image: Brandon Rios waiting to fight Pacquiao-Marquez winner next AprilBy Chris Williams: Ruslan Provodnikov is out of luck in terms of fighting former WBA World lightweight champion Brandon Rios (31-0-1, 23 KO’s) next for the vacant World Boxing Organization 140 lb title as ordered by the WBO. Instead of getting that fight, Provodnikov will have to face someone else such as the recently knocked out Mike Alvarado next year for the vacant strap.

As for Rios, according to Steve Kim, he has decided to wait and fight the winner of the December 8th bout between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao. It’s a no-brainer for the 26-year-old Rios, as it’s a much bigger money fight facing Pacquaio or even Marquez instead of Provodnikov. Besides that, Rios never get this opportunity given to him again because Pacquiao is getting older and may not have much time left in the sport. The same goes for the 39-year-old Marquez.

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Arum to leave it up to Pacquiao to whether he wants to fight Brandon Rios

Image: Arum to leave it up to Pacquiao to whether he wants to fight Brandon RiosBy Chris Williams: According to examiner.com, Bob Arum is going to leave it up to Manny Pacquiao to determine if he wants to fight Arum’s stable fighter former WBA World lightweight champion Brandon Rios after Pacquiao’s fight with 39-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez next month on December 8th. The World Boxing Organization has ordered a fight between #4 WBO Rios and #2 WBO Ruslan Provodnikov. However, Arum won’t make that fight if Rios prefers the Pacquiao fight and Pacquiao agrees to face Rios, according to interview of Arum by Chris Robinson at examiner.com.

It’s pretty obvious that Rios wants the fight with Pacquiao, and it’s highly unlikely that he would have any interest in fighting the Russian Provodnikov, who doesn’t have a large fan base in the U.S. The question is will Pacquiao be interested in fighting Rios after the Marquez fight? I’m sure Arum will make it known to Pacquiao what he himself prefers and he’ll obviously lay out the projected pay per view numbers a fight between the Mexican American Rios would draw in a fight against Pacquiao. Rios isn’t from Mexico, but he’d possibly be able to attract the Mexican fans in the U.S, even though he’s not a star or anything close to being a star.

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Brandon Rios still a possibility to fight Pacquiao if he beats Marquez in December

Image: Brandon Rios still a possibility to fight Pacquiao if he beats Marquez in DecemberBy Chris Williams: According to RingTV, Bob Arum of Top Rank is still very much interesting in pitting Brandon Rios in with Manny Pacquiao in April of next year if Pacquiao can get by Juan Manuel Marquez in their fight this December. Arum’s eager to make the Pacquiao-Rios fight and sees it as a huge fight. RingTV reports that the World Boxing Organization has ordered that Rios and Ruslan Provodnikov fight for the vacant WBO light welterweight crown, but it doesn’t look like Arum is too eager to make that fight. He’s still talking about wanting to match Rios with Pacquiao.

I guess I can’t blame Arum because Provodnikov might actually beat Rios, who proved nothing in beating fellow Top Rank fighter Mike Alvarado by a 7th round TKO on October 13th of this month. Rios didn’t look at all good before he hurt Alvarado late in the 6th and stopped him in the next round. Provodnikov is a crude slugger just like Rios, and he could win if he’s able to take Rios’s best shots, unless of course we have another controversial decision like we saw when Rios was given a win over Richard Abril earlier this year.

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Fans prefer Danny Garcia to fight Brandon Rios or Lucas Mattysse next, not Judah

Image: Fans prefer Danny Garcia to fight Brandon Rios or Lucas Mattysse next, not JudahBy Dan Ambrose: In a poll conducted by RingTV, boxing fans preferred by a wide margin that WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia fight #1 Brandon Rios or #2 Lucas Matthysse for Garcia’s next fight in February or March of next year. Boxing fans don’t appear to be all that interested in seeing Garcia fight Zab Judah, who has already been mentioned by Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer as possibly the next guy that Garcia fights.

Below are the results of the poll from 3,855 fans:

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Garcia: Pacquiao’s age makes him vulnerable to Brandon Rios

Image: Garcia: Pacquiao's age makes him vulnerable to Brandon RiosBy Chris Williams: Former WBA World lightweight champion Brandon Rios’ trainer Robert Garcia sees Manny Pacquiao as being ripe for the picking for his fighter 26-year-old Rios to beat next year, and Garcia sees Pacquiao having problems with Rios’ fighting style/youth.

Garcia said to RingTV “I think Brandon’s style combined with Pacquiao’s age and all of that, we might be able to pull off a surprise.”

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Merchant wants Pacquiao to fight Rios after Marquez

Image: Merchant wants Pacquiao to fight Rios after MarquezBy Chris Williams: HBO analyst believes the perfect opponent for Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO’s) to fight is Brandon Rios (31-0-1, 23 KO’s) because of his face forward style of fighting and his lack of a reverse gear in his game. Merchant sees Rios being the ideal guy for Pacquiao to fight because he won’t have to come looking for him like he’s had to in recent fights against Shane Mosley, Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez.

Those three fighters have been the equivalent of throwing change-ups to a fastball hitter. Pacquiao has been off balance pretty much for the past year. His last fight against a slugger was against Antonio Margarito in 2010, but he wasn’t exactly young and didn’t have the game to stand and trade with Pacquiao due to his lack of hand speed in comparison to the much faster Pacquiao.

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Ranking Rios-Alvarado fight

Image: Ranking Rios-Alvarado fightBy Duke Pahulu: Kevin Iole of Yahoo proclaimed Brandon Rios – Mike Alvarado as the best fight of this century. Now I know the fight just happen last Saturday night but Iole needs to hold his horses. Jose Luis Castillo – Diego Corrales I is still by far the greatest fight this century.

Rios-Alvarado was a fight between a former lightweight champ and a top ten light welterweight for no title. Castillo-Corrales I was for the lightweight championship of the world. Castillo and Corrales were higher ranking fighters than Rios and Alvarado and are borderline Hall of Famers.

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Richard “Money” Abril would have schooled Brandon Rios last Saturday

Image: Richard "Money" Abril would have schooled Brandon Rios last SaturdayBy Jason Kim: Having seen Brandon Rios’ victory over previously unbeaten Mike Alvarado last Saturday night, I have no doubt that lightweight contender Richard “Money” Abril (17-3-1, 8 KO’s) would have totally schooled Rios if it had been him in the ring with Rios instead of the limited Alvarado. Abril, a Mayweather clone much in the same mold as Adrien Broner, really dominated Rios last April in their fight at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

While Abril ended up the loser of that fight by a controversial 12 round split decision, most boxing fans saw Arbil as easily winning that fight with many fans seeing Abril winning by 10 rounds to 2 score. It was an embarrassingly easy fight for Abril and it was scary to see how two judges saw Rios as the winner of that fight. That was just scary and sad at the same time. The only judge that seemed to be watching the fight clearly was Adalaide Byrd, who scored it an easy 117-111 victory for Abril. Even that score was far too generous for Rios, because he really got dominated.

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Rios is no Gatti

Image: Rios is no GattiBy Duke Pahulu: On ESPN.com, Grantland writer Jay Kang wrote an article about the Brandon Rios – Mike Alvarado fight. It was the first story that somehow put a negative spin on a great fight. Kang tried to convey that both fighters were somehow pressured into fulfilling the pre-fight hype. The fact is that both fighters do not know how to fight any other way than what they did last Saturday night.

That’s why the boxing world hype the fight and waited for this match-up since the contracts were signed. Kang was also disturbed by how brawlers tend to get more press than the slick boxer. It’s a fair trade. The brawler get the press for putting his health at risk while the slick boxer gets the win and keep his brain intact. Boxing is a brutal sport. Fans appreciates those that go through the fire for glory.

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Rios should have to prove himself against Garcia, Matthysse and Peterson before getting Pacquiao

Image: Rios should have to prove himself against Garcia, Matthysse and Peterson before getting PacquiaoBy Chris Williams: Brandon Rios (31-0-1, 23 KO’s) probably earned himself a shot against Manny Pacquiao last night in defeated Mike Alvarado (33-1, 23 KO’s) in their WBO light welterweight eliminator bout. With both Rios and Pacquiao belonging to the same Top Rank stable, it’s now almost a given that their promoter Bob Arum will match Rios up with Pacquiao next April, provided that Pacquiao beats Juan Manuel Marquez on December 8th. If Pacquiao loses, then it’ll likely be Marquez that faces Rios.

By matching Rios up with Pacquiao, Arum continues with the club-like fight matching of his fighters because it’s just another Top Rank in house fight for Arum if he makes this fight. I think Rios is a decent fighter but I’d like to see him actually prove himself worthy of a fight with Pacquiao by beating more established light welterweights like Lucas Matthysse, Danny Garcia, and Lamont Peterson before Rios gets a shot against Pacquiao.

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