By Francisco Hernandez: February 26 is fast approaching when fans will get to see what should be one of this year’s best fights between Brandon Rios vs. Miguel Acosta. Many people are giving Miguel Acosta the edge in this tough fight. Yet Brandon Rios can win the fight if he’s smart and doesn’t allow Acosta to time him.

What makes Acosta so dangerous is that he is a slugger converted to a boxer. At the beginning of his career Acosta was a bona fide slugger; he was knocking out most of his opponents. It is only when he lost three in a row that Acosta realized that if he didn’t learn to box, his career in the sport of pug noses was history. His decision to learn boxing skills was the right one because Acosta never lost again. Fighters like Acosta are dangerous because they are deceptive: the opponent believes he is fighting a boxer who backs up, who moves around the ring, uses defensive skills, and like many boxers feather fisted. What they forget or don’t know is that Acosta is a slugger at heart; he boxes his opponents only to time them and whack them with a haymaker.

Brandon Rios needs to either out jab Acosta to keep him off rhythm, or Rios needs to neutralize Acosta’s jab with counterpunching. Rios cannot allow Acosta to establish his jab, because this will allow Acosta to eventually time Rios or outbox him if the fight goes the distance. If Brandon Rios can do this he has a good chance of taking the fight.

Brandon Rios has many loyal fans, although he didn’t do much good for himself when he despicably insulted legend Freddie Roach. Many people walked away with an image of Rios as that stereotypical kid who works at McDonalds and spits on your burger. But you have to give the kid a break, he is growing up and he is going to make mistakes. Brandon Rios like many Americans of his generation was brought up by Jerry Springer and they believe that having a foul mouth is a virtue. He needs to learn though, he needs a mentor who can teach him about life, help him mature a little. Brandon Rios is going to need true strength for this fight, strength that can only originate from a noble heart, not from a foul mouth.