By Chris Williams: Top Rank president Bob Arum is saying that he may opt to make the mouth-watering fight between unbeaten light welterweight contender Mike Alvarado (33-0, 23 KO’s) and former WBA World lightweight champion Brandon Rios (30-0-1, 22 KO’s) the main event on October 20th on the Nonito Donaire vs. Toshiaki Nishioka fight card.

Arum told doghouseboxing.com “Who says it’s [Alvarado-Rios] the undercard? They’re going to fight each other on the card. We’ll determine what the main event is.”

That’s smart of Arum, because seriously a fight between Donaire and Nishioka won’t be a big deal in the United States. Few people have heard of Nishioka outside of hardcore boxing fans. The only way a Donaire fight should be put in the main event on the card is if Donaire fought Guillero Rigondeaux or Abner Mares, and that’s not going to happen. I don’t see Donaire ever agreeing to fight either of those guys. He’ll likely fight Nishioka and possibly Jorge Arce and then probably move up to featherweight without ever facing those guys.

The Alvarado-Rios fight is the much better bout compared to the Donaire-Nishioka fight. Both Alvarado and Rios are sluggers with exciting styles. Rios can be exciting when he’s not weight drained and facing someone with boxing skills.

If you put a stationary fighter in front of Rios and give him a weight advantage of 10 or more pounds, he’s going to do really well. I don’t think he’ll be able to hang with Alvarado, though, because this guy is bigger than Rios and he can punch and throw a lot of shots. If Rios takes that fight he’s going to beaten up.