Brandon Rios ready for Diego Chaves

By Boxing News - 07/21/2014 - Comments

rios6By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (31-2-1, 23 KO’s) is matched up fairly tough in a fight against #10 IBF welterweight contender Diego Chaves (23-1, 19 KO’s) in their scheduled 10 round fight in less than two weeks from now on August 2nd at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

Rios hasn’t fought since his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to Manny Pacquiao last November. Rios took a beating in that fight and wasn’t competitive at all in losing the fight in Macao, China.

After his loss to Pacquiao, Rios said that he wanted an easier fight like the one WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia has against Rod Salka next month, but instead Top Rank is matching Rios with Chaves. It looks like Top Rank promoter Bob Arum isn’t going to waste time with Rios.

Arum obviously wants to try and get him back in the thick of things quickly rather than stringing it out for a year or two by wasting time trying to build him back up by making him look good against weak opposition. It makes sense for Arum to do this, because if Rios doesn’t have the talent to beat the fringe contenders like Chaves, then he probably needs to cash out and move on in another direction. Arum can cash out with a Rios vs. Mike Alvarado fight, and then release Rios if he loses that fight too.

“Honestly, I did want an easier fight,” Rios said to esnewsreporting.com. “I wanted a guy like Danny Garcia is fighting, ranked No.77, that kind of mother-[expletive] for my first fight back. But you know what? It is what it is. I give Danny a lot of respect because his people picked the right fight for him. I’m ready for Diego Chaves. It’s going to be a good fight.”

Like I said, if Rios loses to Chaves, which is a very real possibility, then don’t be surprised if Arum matches Rios in his next fight against Mike Alvarado and then releases him if he loses that fight. Arum can’t keep dead weight in his stable if they’re unable to compete at a high level. Rios was a good fighter at lightweight, but at light welterweight and welterweight, he just doesn’t seem to have the talent to fight in those divisions. He was out-boxed by Mike Alvarado in 2013 and easily beaten by Pacquiao.

The loss to Alvarado pretty much gave you an idea where Rios is. Losing that fight was a red flag that Rios doesn’t have the power or skills to compete against the best at 140. Rios is fighting at welterweight, and that’s even worse for him, because he doesn’t have the frame to be fighting in this division.

Also on the card is WBA light welterweight champion Jessie Vargas defending his title against unbeaten challenger Anton Novikov. Vargas is a fighter that we could see in the ring with Manny Pacquiao in the future due to Top Rank having run out of opponents for Pacquiao to fight in their stable.

Here are some of the other fights on the card:
Jessie Magdaleno vs. Carlos Rodriguez
Shane Mosley Jr vs. TBA



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