Garcia vs. Rios: Brandon says he’ll make it a ‘Bam Bam’ slugfest

By Boxing News - 12/31/2017 - Comments

Image: Garcia vs. Rios: Brandon says he'll make it a 'Bam Bam' slugfest

By Dan Ambrose: Danny Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs) is facing the always tough pressure fighter Brandon ‘Bam Bam’ Rios (34-3-1, 25 KOs) on February 17.

Rios, 31, has the perfect style to give Garcia big time problems for their fight on Showtime Boxing at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In Garcia’s toughest 3 fights of his career, he’s struggled against Keith Thurman, Lamont Peterson and Mauricio Herrera. All 3 of those guys put tremendous pressure on Garcia, forcing him to back up and fight defensively. The pressure those 3 guys put on Garcia also revealed that he doesn’t do well when he’s forced to fight at a fast pace.

Garcia likes things to be slow so he can time his opponents, load up his left hook, which is his bread and butter puncher. Garcia is like Saul Canelo Alvarez in that he needs to rest and fight at a close pace for him to do well. Canelo is terrible when you force him to fight hard for 3 minutes of each round by attacking him with withering fire. Danny Garcia has the same problem with his poor stamina.

”I’m bringing a ‘Bam Bam’ Rios slugfest to the fans,” said Rios. ”I will beat him just like I have others in the past. I’m excited to prove the critics wrong. I am focused and I will make a classic Mexican-Puerto Rican battle,” said Rios.

If Rios can put the kind of pressure on Garcia the way Herrera, Peterson and Thurman did, I think there’s a very good chance he’ll break him mentally and physically. Rios has the high pressure fighting style to defeat Garcia, as long as he’s able to handle his punching power. Garcia hits hard, but he’s probably not going to be able to dent Rios’ chin.

The only way to hurt Rios is to attack him to the body the way that Timothy Bradley did in stopping him in the 9th round in their fight 2 years ago on November 7, 2015. However, Rios wasn’t in the best shape for the Bradley fight. We saw that after Rios rehydrated to 170 pounds on the night of the fight. That’s the kind of weight that middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin rehydrates to for his fights in the 160 lb. division. Rios rehydrating 23 pounds after weighing in at 147 for the Bradley fight, it was a sign that he wasn’t well-trained for that bout.

Not surprisingly, Garcia is the favorite going into the match. Garcia has done more with his boxing career than Rios has. One reason for that is Garcia has kept himself in shape, and not lost motivation in the same way Rios has. It also helps that Garcia fought in a weight class that was perfect for his body size at 140. Rios was at his best fighting in the lightweight division, but he ate himself out of the weight class. If Rios had stayed dedicated and controlled his weight, he probably would still be a champion today at 135.

YouTube video