(Photo: Chris Farina – Top Rank) By Jason Kim: Former WBA World lightweight champion Brandon Rios (29-0-1, 22 KO’s) is hoping his promoter Bob Arum can line him up with a fight against former three division world champion Juan Manuel Marquez later on this year in the summer if Rios beats his opponent Richard Abril (17-2-1, 8 KO’s) and Marquez defeats Sergiy Fedchenko on Saturday night. Both fights will be televised on HBO pay-per-view in a $44.95 split site card.

Rios will be facing Abril at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada, while Marquez will be battling the 30-year-old Ukrainian Fedchenko in Mexico City, Mexico.

Rios said “Juan Manuel Marquez and I have a lot of options in 2012, and a lot of opportunities…One of us could end up as the fighter of the year.”

It’s possible if the fight gets made. I can’t see Marquez taking the fight unless he’s absolutely certain that it will get him a rematch with Manny Pacquiao. Marquez won’t want to be just someone that brings value to Bob Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters by fighting them and giving them a name in the process. There isn’t much of an upside for Marquez because Rios isn’t a big star, and not too many people even care about his fight against Abril this Saturday.

There’s no point in Marquez fighting Rios unless Pacquiao is the achievable end goal. Rios would obviously go right at Marquez and try to outwork him the way that Pacquiao tried last November. It might take Marquez a couple of rounds to solve Rios, but probably not even that. Rios has a style that Marquez is very well accustomed to, having fought in Mexico most of his life. I can see that fight going going badly for Rios and I don’t think it’ll be the fight of the year or any such make believe stuff like that.

Rios appears to have the easier fight of the two, because Abril doesn’t have much power and will be looking to box. The only thing Rios has to worry about is being quick enough to catch up to Abril, because there may be some running involved by the Cuban Abril.

Fedchenko on the other hand has good skills and decent power. He’s a lot more sneaky and hard to hit compared to Abril. Marquez will have a huge learning curve in this fight. Marquez will have to figure out how to catch up to Fedchenko or time him when he’s coming forward to try and land.