By Dan Ambrose: Light welterweight contender Mike Alvarado (33-1, 23 KO’s) has signed a contract for a rematch with unbeaten former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (31-0-1, 23 KO’s) for a fight that will be taking place on March 30th, according to Steve Kim. Team Alvarado are now waiting for Rios to sign his portion of the contract.
Rios stopped the 32-year-old Alvarado in the 7th round last October in a fight that was competitive until the 6th round. Once Rios got Alvarado hurt, he finished him off. The fight was exciting while it lasted, which gave their mutual promoter Bob Arum the excuse to put them back in the ring together.
Arum probably didn’t need much of an excuse to put them back in together given that Arum doesn’t have a lot of options to put either guy in with. By putting them together, Arum can keep them both busy and presumably happy.
The fight that Arum wants for Rios is against Manny Pacquiao, but that fight will have to wait until 2014 in that Pacquiao will be fighting only once in 2013 and that’s going to be against Juan Manuel Marquez. If Pacquiao wins that fight then we’ll likely see Pacquiao and Rios facing each other in 2013.
Boxing fans are torn between some wanting Rios to move on and face different fighters and others liking the idea of Rios continuing to fight Alvarado. It just seems kind of strange from my perfective considering the fight was so final and decisive.
You’d like to see someone Rios moving forward with their career instead of going backwards to fight a guy he just knocked out. Arum wants the fight but you have to wonder why he wants it. Is it due to Arum not having any options for Rios other than to keep him fighting Alvarado over and over again?
I just hope that this will be the last time Rios and Alvarado fight each other if Rios knocked Alvarado out again. How do you push a fight to the boxing public when one guy keeps beating the other guy?
Comments are closed.