By Chris Williams: In a not surprising move, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum reportedly doesn’t want to let Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) and Mike Alvarado (34-1, 23 KO’s) to fight each other immediately for a third fight, according to Steve Kim.
Arum wants Rios and Alvarado to fight other guys in a “mix and match”, before putting them back in with each other at some point. This isn’t surprising because Rios, who lost to Alvarado by a 12 round unanimous decision last night in Las Vegas, was someone that Arum was building up to be a pay-per-view fighter and he had big plans in store for him had he won this fight.
Now those plans are pretty much ruined with Rios getting beaten by Alvarado. It doesn’t matter that the fight was somewhat close. Rios was exposed big time in the fight, and couldn’t handle the little bit of movement that Alvarado showed him. Arum can’t afford to put Rios back in with Alvarado and have get beaten again. This is what I see this move as being all about.
Arum said to ESPN “I’d like to see one of them agaisnt Provodnikov or Marquez to face one of them…I sort of feel I’d like to see these guys against other people, and then we can do a rematch…I really don’t like to do immediate rematches.”
Another loss for Rios and he’d be next to worthless for Arum. He can’t have Rios’ career put on skid row by Alvarado; hence we’re now seeing Arum talking about not wanting to put Rios back in with Alvarado. Arum saw the fight obviously, and he knows that if he puts Rios back in with Alvarado the chances are he’ll beat again.
Rios already dodged a bullet with his gift decision last April against Richard Abril, and he also has a draw against Manuel Perez in 2008 in a fight that Rios appeared to lose. Rios arguably should have three losses on his resume right now, and having him get beaten again by Alvarado would make him less of a money fighter for Arum. For this reason it’s not surprising that Arum doesn’t want to put him back in with Alvarado.
I’m just wondering who Arum is going to put Rios and Alvarado in with. Arum’s stable is small around the 140 to 147 pound area, and there’s only Ruslan Provodnikov, Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez, Tim Bradley, Khabib Allakhverdiev and Terrence Crawford. My guess is Alvarado faces Provodnikov, and Rios is put in with Marquez or Allakhverdiev or Crawford.
If Arum puts Rios in with Crawford he’s going to struggle because that guy is total counter puncher, and likes to make guys miss all night long. He’d made Rios look bad and beat him by a boring decision like he did Breidis Prescott last night.
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