By Dan Ambrose: WBA World lightweight champion Brandon Rios (27-0-1, 20 KO’s) will be making his first defense of his World Boxing Association title this Saturday night against #12 ranked WBA contender Urbano Antillon (28-2, 20 KO’s) at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California. It’s a decent but far from great fight, as Antillon has lost two out of his last four fights and has only beaten a small handful of top tier fighters during his 11 year pro career.

Some boxing fans are going crazy about this fight but it’s hard for me to get excited at seeing a guy who is coming into the fight with a 50-50 recent his last four fights and is ranked as low as Antillon is. I’d much rather see Rios face Miguel Acosta again then see Rios face a guy that Acosta already knocked out in Antillon. Whatever the case, this is Rios’ first defense of his title so you can’t expect much. He’ll beat Antillon, because he’s a stationary fighter that typically goes right at his opponents but without big power.

Antillon gets his wins by throwing a lot of punches, taking a lot of punches and generally outlasting his opposition. He was couldn’t do that with Humberto Soto, who ground out a 12 round decision last December, and Antillon couldn’t the movement and big punches from Acosta. He took Antillon out in the 9th round two years ago.

Rios is coming off a 10th round TKO of Acosta in February in an exciting bout that saw Rios getting dominated in the first four rounds and then coming back to stop him. However, Rios won’t last long as a fighter if he keeps taking big shots like he did in the Acosta fight. Rios is too easy to hit and will have problems if he faces a real big puncher that will take advantage of his nonexistent defense. Antillon will give him problems before getting stopped. Neither of these guys can block a punch to save their lives. I suppose that’s the good thing about watching them, but I’d prefer to see Rios fight someone like Juan Manuel Marquez instead of a guy that’s struggling like Antillon.