Rios vs. Alvarado this Saturday night, March 30th in Las Vegas

By Boxing News - 03/25/2013 - Comments

alvarado332By Eric Thomas: Former WBA World lightweight champion Brandon Rios (31-0-1, 23 KO’s) will be looking to stay unbeaten and prove that his previous 7th round TKO win over Mike Alvarado (33-1, 23 KO’s) last October wasn’t just a fluke thing when the two Top Rank fighters square off in an HBO televised fight this Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The WBO interim light welterweight title will be on the line for the fight.

Alvarado, 32, is saying the fight will be different this time because he plans on using his boxing skills to elude Rios, but that’s easier said than done. Alvarado has never been much of a boxer; it’s not that he doesn’t have the ability to do so when he’s got his mind set on using his jab and feet.

Alvarado’s main problem is he seems to think he can run over everyone, and he found out the hard way against Rios last October that he can’t do that.
Alvarado should have gotten a clue in his fights with Breidis Prescott and Mauricio Herrera that he doesn’t have the kind of power that will allow him to walk though guys.

Alvarado beat both of them, but he took enormous punishment in both fights, and he’s lucky that he was able to stop an exhausted Prescott in the 10th round because he would have lost that fight had it gone to the cards.

For Alvarado to beat Rios, he’s going to have to resist his impulse to get in the trenches with the younger 26-year-old because Rios’ chin is too good, and his power is too much for Alvarado to take for 12 rounds. Rios probably isn’t a bigger puncher than Prescott, but what makes Rios so dangerous for Alvarado is that he tires out the way that Prescott did.

His power stays the same from the 1st to the 12th round. That’s reason enough for Alvarado to stay on his bike for most of the fight and to use his jab to keep from getting hit all that often. It’s a winnable fight for Alvarado because Rios can be out-boxed like we saw in his controversial/gift decision win over Richard Abril last April, but Alvarado will have to be smart like Abril was to get the victory.



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