By Gav Duthie: The winner of the Mike Alvarado v Brandon Rios rubber match can celebrate to a triumphant trilogy performance, the loser might never step in a ring again. After their second bout they stood at one win a piece when Bob Arum said they will fight again but they have plenty of opportunities to look at before then. Both fighters have squandered those opportunities and are fighting each other in the last chance saloon. This article takes a look at other fighters, some former world champions who are similarly in the last chance saloon in 2015. One more defeat and there career could be over.
Heavyweight – Shannon Briggs
The Cannon hasn’t failed to amuse us with his recent social media and video ramblings. With everything from Beyonce Wilder to stalking Wladimir Klitschko at lunch Briggs has certainly got his name back out there. We thought we had seen the last of him in 2010 after a one sided beat down (Briggs needed hospitalized for a week) when he fought Vitaly Klitschko. It should be noted that Briggs actually did fight 5 times in 2014 (4 1st round stoppages, 1 unanimous decision) so he is at least trying to walk the walk. He doesn’t seem keen to mix it with any top contenders and is clearly looking for a payday against a champion. It seems like his efforts may have paid off as Wladimir has expressed a desire to fight him. He will clearly lose again and next time he tries this nobody will take him seriously no matter how funny his tweets are.
Super Middleweight – George Groves
Team Sauerland have worked wonders to get ‘Saint’ George Groves back in the mix with a mandatory position for Anthony Dirrel’s WBC title. He hasn’t quite looked himself during his back to back wins over Rebrasse and Dolan leading Carl Froch to claim that he has been ‘Cobra’d’. Perhaps a title shot so soon may not be the best course of action but only time will tell. Anthony Dirrell has taken more than 5 months to pick a voluntary challenger so Kalle Sauerland has intimated that he wants the first defence to now be against Groves.
Groves is only 26 but if he loses again to the powerful Dirrell then psychologically he would struggle to come back from that.
Welterweight – Andre Berto
In 2011 Berto was probably next in line to fight Floyd Mayweather. Three losses later and few believe in him anymore. His next opponent Josesito Lopez is no easy test but he is not world class either. Berto needs to win and look good. He needs a shut out victory or a big stoppage and by the end of the year he should have a big win over a top contender. A rematch against Victor Ortiz who is also in a similar position with three defeats since the Berto win may mean a slight reprieve for the winner if it happens.
Light Welterweight/Welterweight – Mike Alvarado and Brandon Rios
Although people are getting excited about this trilogy conclusion this weekend I think the loser should retire. Both Alvarado are in a much darker place than they were when they last fought. Alvarado failed to out slug Provodnikov and out box Marquez wheras Rios was completely dominated by Pacquaio and guilty of using PED’s. He was fortunate to score a DQ win over Diego Chavez but if he doesn’t win here he really has nowhere to go.
I think Alvarado should be able to outbox Rios again but there is every chance Brandon can score the knockout. The loser will be relegated to the second tier and would unlikely fight for a title again.
Unknown Division – Ricky Burns
In 2013 it seemed lady luck was on Burns side. A struggling performance against Jose A Gonzalez where he was behind in all cards before rallying to win and an unexpected draw against Raymundo Beltran despite breaking his jaw. 2014 was much different, he lost his title to rising star Terence Crawford but more shockingly lost his comeback fight against Serbian Dejan Zlaticanin. Although he was victorious on his Light welterweight debut he correctly decided this was not the division for him but has surprisingly expressed a desire to move back down to Super Featherweight to face champion Rances Barthelemy.
Ricky and his promoters don’t seem to know what to do for the best to recapture the title winning form but one thing is for sure one more defeat and his career could be over.
Who will win a world title
Title shot. Win
Shannon Briggs. Yes. No
George Groves. Yes. Yes
Andre Berto. No. No
Mike Alvarado. Yes. No
Brandon Rios. No. No
Ricky Burns. Yes. No
Comments are closed.