By Chris Williams: Brandon Rios (29-0-1, 22 KO’s) and Richard Abril (17-2-1, 8 KO’s) will be televised on HBO on April 14th in a pay per view fight along with Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Serhiy Fedchenko in a split site card. The Rios-Abril fight will take place at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. I’m still recovering from the shock of seeing that this card will be PPV, because I don’t see anything that that’s worth paying for.

Why make a couple of separate mismatches into a PPV card when neither fight is a competitive one? Fedechenko stands no chance against Marquez. He couldn’t even beat Kaizer Mabuza. If you can’t beat him, then what do you think Fedchenko will do against Marquez? And people have to pay to watch this mismatch? Abril-Rios is just as bad. Abril, 29, can’t punch his way out of a wet paper bag and was already exposed by Breidis Prescott and Henry Lundy. If Abril can’t beat those guys then how is expected to beat Rios? And this is PPV? I like this part: The vacant WBA lightweight title will be on the line for that fight. They might as well give Rios the belt and cancel the fight, because it’s not going to be a fight. Rios will wipe the deck with Abril and make it look easy.

What gets me is how bad of a product this is. I know Bob Arum wants to entertain boxing fans but this isn’t how you do it by setting up two mismatches and then combining them in a PPV card in split sites. I wouldn’t pay a dime to see these fights. Maybe some boxing fans would do it but not me. I like competitive fights if I’m going to pay to watch boxing. This isn’t competitive and it’s not even interesting. Abril is weak hit and fighter, and so is Fedchenko. They’re better off fighting each other and letting Rios fight Marquez. Good god, what a terrible card.