By Nick Adams: Undefeated super featherweight prospect Brandon Rios (16-0, 11 KOs) stopped 38 year-old Alvin Brown (26-11, 12 KOs) in the 2nd round of a scheduled 8-round on Friday night at the Cicero Stadium, in Cicero, Illinois. Rios, 21, a former 2004 United States Amateur featherweight champion, hurt Brown with two left hooks in the 2nd round, and then finished him off with a left-right combination to the head, knocking him to the canvas. Referee John O’Brien moved in and stopped the bout at 1:10 of the 2nd, as Brown was too hurt to continue fighting.
Rios looked good in the 1st round, throwing combinations to the head and body and keeping Brown backing up. However, it was Rios’ hooks to the body that did most of the damage, as he landed a number of huge body punches that had Brown in distress, especially late in the round when Rios nailed him with a left hook that caused Brown to pitch forward for a moment, as if he were about to go down. He remained upright and continued fighting but he took additional body punches from Rios as the round came to an end.
Rios started slowly in the second round, starting out with jabs and then progressing to his hard, digging body shots after a minute into the round. He landed two consecutive lefts to the body that hurt Brown. Rios then followed with a right hand, and then a right-left combination that dropped Brown to the canvas. He wasn’t about to get up off the canvas, and upon seeing his condition, the referee John O’Brien stepped in and stopped the bout.
It was an impressive performance from the hard-punching prospect Rios. If there’s any criticism I can give to him, it’s his lack of handspeed. For a featherweight, he’s rather slow, but then again, Robert Guerrero, the IBF featherweight champion and Steven Luevano, the WBO featherweight champion, aren’t particularly fast punches either and it hasn’t held them back from winning titles.