By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (33-3-1, 24 KOs) says he’d like to fight Victor Ortiz (31-6-2, 24 KOs), because he says he’s been talking mess about him. Rios, 30, wants to pay him back by beating him in the ring. Ortiz was last seen in April in getting stopped in the 4th round by Andre Berto at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
It would be good to see Ortiz return to the ring to fight Rios, because both fighters’ careers are presently on the rocks right now. An overweight 170 pound Rios was stopped in the 9th round by Tim Bradley last November in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bradley dropped Rios twice with hard body shots in that round to get the stoppage.
“I would love that fight, ring or no ring. I’m down…streets or in the ring,” said Rios to Fighthype. “He’s a stupid [expletive]. He started talking [expletive] about me. If it’s true that he’s saying that [expletive], now he’s bringing it on to a different level. Now I just want to slap the [expletive] out of him.” said Rios.
Rios vs. Ortiz would be a good fight for these two guys, because neither of them appear to be going anywhere with their careers at this point. Rios has lost three out of his last six fights since 2013. Rios probably should have another loss to Richard Abril from their fight in 2012, because he appeared to lose that fight as well but was given a highly controversial 12 round decision victory by the judges.
The way that Rios looked in the Bradley fight, I don’t know what his promoters at Top Rank can do with him. They can’t keep matching Rios against Mike Alvarado and Bradley, because they’ll look ridiculous if they try shoving those stale fights down the throats of the boxing public. Besides, I don’t think HBO would give Top Rank the green light to televise Rios-Alvarado 4 or Bradley-Rios 2. Top Rank can’t make those PPV bouts, because few if any fans would pay to see the tired old fights. I’m not even sure there would be fan interest in an Ortiz vs. Rios fight.
What works against a Rios vs. Ortiz fight from taking place is the lack of dates HBO has right now for boxing. Unless Rios is on board with fighting on an undercard against Ortiz, I don’t see the fight happening. The thing is, for Rios and Ortiz to get the kind of money they’ve been accustomed to receiving for their fights in the past, they would likely need to be the main event.
Would HBO be on board with televising Rios-Ortiz as a main event? I doubt it. I think HBO would want to focus on televising quality fights involving actual contenders and/or world champions that are going someplace with their careers. I think Rios and Ortiz have seen better days and likely won’t be able to turn their sagging careers around at this point.
Rios-Ortiz would be a good fight for Premier Boxing Champions on one of their undercards. It might interest some fans if it were on free television.