By Dan Ambrose: #4 WBO Brandon Rios (32-2-1, 23 KOs) is uttering the dreaded ‘R’ word in talking about a possible retirement from boxing if he goes out and gets beaten by former WBO light welterweight champion Mike Alvarado in their trilogy fight in the next 10 days on January 24th at the 1stBank Center, in Bloomfield, Colorado.
It’s hard to tell why the 28-year-old Rios is talking about retirement now, because he should have been talking about it a long time ago. Rios has pretty much lost 4 out of his last 5 fights.
His wins over Diego Chaves and Richard Abril were robberies in the minds of many boxing fans who saw those fights. Ignoring those highly controversial victories for Rios, he has no place to go even if he were to beat the shop worn Alvarado.
Of course, another loss to Alvarado would pretty much close the door on Rios getting any other big fight opportunities unless he can find his way back down to the lightweight division, which is pretty much the only place where Rios would have any real chance of doing anything. But as big as he is now, it’s probably impossible for him to melt down from the high 150s to get down to the 135 pound limit to make lightweight.
“For both of us it’s do or die. If I lose this fight I may just call it a day as a fighter. I’ve been at this a long time,” Rios said.
Somehow I don’t see Rios voluntarily retiring from the sport, not with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum giving him opportunity after opportunity. If Arum was willing to let Rios fight Manny Pacquiao while coming off of a loss to Alvarado, then you can bet Arum will keep trotting Rios out for fights against his guys like Tim Bradley, Alvarado, Terence Crawford, Mikey Garcia, Jessie Vargas, if only just to have a body to insert into the ring with them. If Arum wants to do a good deed, he’d put Rios back in with the guys that he arguably lost to in Richard Abril and Diego Chaves in order for Rios to try and prove that he can really beat them instead of getting controversial wins and then moving on.
“This will be the best fight of the trilogy, as it should be. I am ready for anything Mike Alvarado brings to the table. I know all his tricks. He can’t surprise me this time.”
How can there be any surprise after the last fight? If Rios can’t figure out that Alvarado is going to be using movement against him then he’s a lost cause, because that’s the only way Alvarado can win this fight. He’s too worn down from his past wars against Rios, Juan Manuel Marquez, Breidis Prescott and Ruslan Provodnikov for him to be able to stand and trade for 12 rounds.
Alvarado is coming into this fight in really bad shape with him having lost his last two fights to Marquez and Provodnikov. Alvarado looked nothing like the fighter that beat Rios in 2013, and you have to figure that he probably has little left in the tank at this point. He can’t stand his ground and fight, and he doesn’t have the legs to move for any length of time without needing to stop and rest.
Alvarado could still do a number on Rios if he can land quick shots and then get moving again. Rios is a punching bag when it comes to taking shots, and all Alvarado needs to do is rip off 3-4 punch combos and then get moving again and he’ll get the win. But he’ll need to do this for 12 rounds for him to get a win over Rios, because if he stops for too long then he’ll get knocked out.
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