It’s a crucial fight for #4 WBO Rios, because he can’t afford to get beat anymore if he wants to continue to be useful to Top Rank as a guy that promoter Bob Arum sticks in with fighters like Manny Pacquiao. Losing to Alvarado in their third fight will be a huge setback for Rios’ career.
Rios has the advantage in this fight as long as he can get the 34-year-old Alvarado to slug with him. If Alvarado uses movement then Rios is going to be in deep trouble, because he can’t handle movement at all.
Rios’ game is straight up slugging against guys that don’t move an inch. Even in Rios’ last fight against Diego Chaves, Rios was lost each time the Argentinian moved around the ring. Luckily for Rios, Chaves had jet lag and was unable to move more than a few seconds of every round. The referee Vik Drakulich really bailed Rios out in that fight by disqualifying Chaves before the fight had a chance to go to the cards.
A lot of boxing fans see Rios and Alvarado as two shot fighters that are physically worn out from their many wars. These fans think they’re ready for the scrap heap, and that they should get out of the game before they get seriously hurt. However, you can’t blame their promoter Bob Arum in continuing to match them against each other as long as there is fan interest in the fight.
It’s just too bad that neither of them have title belts in their possession because it would make for their fight to have a little more meaning. When you’re talking about a main event fight, you’re usually looking at two guys that are fighting over a title or at least are contenders going somewhere. With the Rios and Alvarado fight, it’s more like all-timers fight, because neither guy is going anywhere at 147 or 140, and both have seen their best days.
#10 WBO Alvarado’s career is already on the brink of implosion due to him losing three out of his last four fights. Alvarado, 34, is pretty much already at the gatekeeper stage of his career. He’s technically a contender in the division, but you can’t say he’s a serious contender because there are too many guys at 147 who would likely do a number on Alvarado if given the chance.
Alvarado definitely needs a win in this fight for him to keep alive and continue to be one of the future possibilities for Arum to stick in the ring with Pacquiao. Obviously, he probably won’t be ab le to do that if Alvarado gets beaten by Rios and slops outside of the top 15 at 147.
Alvarado needs a victory over Rios in order to stay relevant. Surprisingly, Arum was recently considering Alvarado as a potential opponent for Paquiao recently before Arum selected Chris Algieri as the guy to face Paquiao.
Also on the card is super middleweight contender Gilberto Ramirez facing Maxim Vlasov in a 10 round bout. It should be an interesting fight. Ramirez is like another Julio Chavez Jr, but perhaps a step down from him in terms of talent.
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