By Jim Dower: Brandon Rios once again failed to make weight for a fight, as he came in at two pounds over the limit at 137lbs during Friday’s weigh-in for his fight against Richard Abril on Saturday night. What this means is Rios can’t win the $50,000 bonus cash that his promoter Top Rank is putting on the line to go the winner. Rios also can’t win the WBA interim lightweight title that’s also up for grabs. It’s safe to say that the $50,000 will go unclaimed on Saturday because Abril won’t be winning.

Rios, looking almost sickly from having taken off so much water weight, attempted to weigh-in a second time but somehow he gained two pounds to come in at 139. Not sure how that happened. It looks like Rios may have given up on the idea of making weight because he shouldn’t have gained weight. His opponent, the Cuban Abril, came in at 135 on the dot to make weight.

The odd thing is that Rios supposedly had a nutritionist helping him with his diet as he was getting ready for the fight. It looks like it’s time for Rios go get a new nutritionist. It didn’t work out well as you can see, because this is the second consecutive fight where Rios failed to make the lightweight limit.

In his last fight last December, Rios lost his WBA lightweight title when he came in overweight during the weigh-in for his fight against John Murray. Although Rios was still able to rehydrate and win the fight after a great struggle, his title was taken away. It was thought that Rios would then move up in weight to the light welterweight division (140lbs), but Rios changed his mind to give it another try.

Rios may need to seriously consider moving up in weight to 140 after this fight, because if he can’t even make weight at the still youthful age of 25, just imagine what it’ll be like when he gets a little older. At that point, Rios might be lucky if he can even make 147 the way he’s going. Rios’ effectiveness beyond the 135 pound division is debatable. I think he loses a lot of what makes him a good fighter if he has to move up against guys that are equally as big as him if not bigger. You put a fighter like Rios in with guys like Danny Garcia, Marcos Maidana, Mike Alvarado, Amir Khan and Tim Bradley, and I see Rios losing to pretty much all of them. His best bet is to stay at lightweight, but it’s pretty clear that he can no longer make the weight.

Brandon Rios 137 – Richard Abril 135
Mike Alvarado 140 – Mauricio Herrera 140
Mercito ‘No Mercy’ Gesta 137 – Oscar Cuero 138
Jesse Anguiano 121.5 – Tremaine Williams 123
Gabriel Medina 141 – Anthony Flores 140
Brandon Baue 153.5 – Mikael Zewski 153
Andre Gorges 141 – Terence Crawford 142
Eric Flores 139 – Wilbert Mitchell 137