By William Mackay: WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (28-0-1, 21 KO’s) was hoping to get a fight against Kevin Mitchell (32-1, 24 KO’s) on December 3rd. However, Mitchell is dealing with some legal issues right now and can’t make it over to the U.S.

Instead of Mitchell, Rios had to settle for the guy that Mitchell just beat, the 26-year-old John Murray (31-1, 18 KO’s) from the UK. Murray was pounded by Mitchell in an 8th round TKO loss in his last fight on July 16th, which makes this a very peculiar pick.

Rios’ promoter from Top Rank Bob Arum doesn’t mind matching his champions up against fighters that have just been beaten. We’ve seen that with Manny Pacquiao, and it’s kind of off putting to say the least, but the larger boxing public is pretty much clueless about boxers. This will likely be under the radar of the casual boxing fan in the U.S, most of which have probably never even heard of Murray and likely won’t care if he had a 100 losses.

They just want to see Rios fight and wipe somebody out on December 3rd. Murray serves that purpose quite nicely indeed. In the large scheme of things, it probably doesn’t really matter that Rios is getting a lesser fight because Mitchell would have stood no chance of beating Rios. Mitchell probably would get knocked quicker than Murray, because Murray can take a heck of a shot.

Supposedly Murray was picked because they see him giving Rios a tough fight for around five rounds. I don’t agree. I think it won’t be tough and it won’t last five rounds. Rios will jump all over Murray in the 1st round and have him out of there by the 2nd at the latest. In order to survive against Rios, you have to have some speed and good defensive skills. Murray doesn’t have that. He’s going to be a sitting duck for everything that Rios throws in this fight and it’s going to be ugly.