Brandon Rios will struggle against Maidana, Matthysse and Alvarado at 140

By Boxing News - 04/15/2012 - Comments

Image: Brandon Rios will struggle against Maidana, Matthysse and Alvarado at 140By Dan Ambrose: Bob Arum of Top Rank might want to put his fighter former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (30-0-1, 22 KO’s) in a cash out fight as soon as possible so he can cut his losses before Rios goes belly up on him at 140lbs. We just saw Rios completely exposed by Richard Abril last Saturday night, and Abril is nothing compared to the kinds of quality fighters that Rios will be forced to fight if he’s going to be competing in the 140 pound light welterweight division.

Can you picture Rios beating any of these guy?

* Mike Alvarado

* Lucas Matthysee

* Marcos Maidana

* Amir Khan

* Humberto Soto

* Danny Garcia

* Tim Bradley

* Ajose Olusegun

* Robert Guerrero

* Lamont Peterson

* Zab Judah

I see Rios in the class of guys like this at 140:

* Jessie Vargas

* Mercito Gesta

* Kendall Holt

* Ruslan Provodnikov

* DeMarcus Corley

* Pablo Cano

Like I was saying, Arum needs to cash out with Rios before he starts taking loses one after another because he has no advantages in the 140 pound division like he did at 135, and he’s going to be exposed by pretty much everyone that Arum can match him against. There practically is no one that Arum can put a flawed fighter like Rios in with without him looking like he did last night against Abril. Rios is what he is – a basic one-dimensional fighter with no hand speed, no foot movement, and no defense. He’s vulnerable against even the bottom feeders of the light welterweight division.

Maidana would be too powerful for a limited fighter like Rios. It would be a fight that would totally benefit Maidana because Rios would stand in front of him standing in Maidana’s wheelhouse all night long and he wouldn’t have to worry about the clinching and the movement that gave Maidana problems in his losses to Amir Khan and Devon Alexander.

Matthysse would be an even worse choice for Rios because he can both box and punch, and switch back and forth between one extreme to another. Besides that, Matthysse is a brutal body puncher and he’d work Rios over with body shots. Matthysse is like finished version of Rios with the ability to punch with more power, move, defend, move his head and fight on the inside. Rios can’t fight on the inside worth a lick and he’d be out of his element against Matthysse.

Alvarado is just a bigger and stronger guy compared to Rios. It would be slaughter because Alvarado would have someone that would stand right in front of him and he would unload all night long with huge power shots, thrown with much more power than Rios. It would be too easy for Alvarado.

Arum should be trying to push Alvarado as his next big star rather than Rios because I see a lot more upside with Alvarado than I do Rios.



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