By Robbie Bannatyne: Football is my first love, but my affection and passion for the sport of boxing is genuine and authentic.
Football fans are a fickle bunch, yet they are nowhere as cynical as boxing enthusiasts. When much loved football players grow old, fans tend to gracefully acknowledge the aging process and concede that the player can no longer perform to their prime capacity.
By Pakal: Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao (54-5, 38KO’s), the former pound for pound king of the ring and the only eight division boxing champion in history, makes his return to the ring against Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios (31-1, 23KO’s), former WBA world light welterweight champion. The WBO Welterweight Title will be on the line and the fight will be held at The Venetian Macau’s Cotai Arena on Saturday, November 23, 2013 ( U.S. local time ) in Macau, China.
There is a fourteen hour time difference from the United States, but locally it will held at approximately 9 p.m. ET/6 PT on HBO PPV.
There are many factors for both fighters coming into this fight, and one is that both boxers are coming into the fight after losses. Rios is coming into this fight with a unanimous decision loss to Mike Alvarado (34-2, 23 KO’s) in March of this year and Pacquiao is coming off a knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) and a controversial loss to Timothy Bradley (31-0, 12KO’s).
By Eric Thomas: Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) sees this Saturday’s fight against Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) as his opportunity to show off his skills to the U.S fans that weren’t aware of who he was before this fight. Rios plans on showing off his talent while in the process of beating the 34-year-old Pacquiao and sending him into retirement.
Rios said at the weigh-in on Friday “My heart and my balls, that’s how I beat him. I want that title. This is to Freddie Roach. Supposedly I had trouble making 147. This is my coming out party for me. No one’s giving me a chance, but I’m going to show them what I’ve got.”
By Jay McIntyre: In his short story titled A Piece of Steak, Jack London poignantly observed that “Always were these youngsters rising up in the boxing game, springing through the ropes and shouting their defiance; and always were the old uns going down before them.”
While Floyd Mayweather and Bernard Hopkins prove to be stubborn exceptions to this remark, the universal truth that exists here simply cannot be denied. Time and again, the grizzled veterans with their established names have been trampled by the tireless line of young hopefuls seeking to collect notable scalps on their path to prominence.
(Photo Credit: Top Rank/Chris Farina) By Chris Williams: Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) hates the idea that he’s being seen as the token victim for Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) this Saturday night.
Rios doesn’t see himself as just another lamb being trotted out for the ritual slaughter for Pacquiao to entertain boxing fans on HBO pay-per-view, and he really feels he’s got an excellent chance of beating the 35-year-old Filipino and ending his long 18-year pro career.
“This is the best shape I have ever been. I’m nobody’s tune-up fight,” Rios said “I’m nobody’s punching bag – a punching bag doesn’t punch back. Sunday, you’re going to find out I’m not going to stop. I’m a monster when I get in that ring.”
Weigh-In Results from China: Manny Pacquiao 145 – Brandon Rios 146.5 Evgeny Gradovich 125.75 – … read more
By Chris Williams: Floyd Mayweather Sr. thinks they’ve found an opponent that Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) can finally beat at this point in his career in Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s), a fighter that belongs with the same Top Rank stable as Pacquiao. Mayweather Sr. sees Rios as just too slow for Pacquiao, and because of that he sees Pacquiao winning the fight. But Mayweather Sr. still sees this as being a difficult fight for Pacquiao due to Rios’ toughness and Pacquiao’s last of technical skills.
Mayweather Sr. said to Hustleboss “He’s [Rios] tough and strong, he hits hard, but he’s too damn slow. If he’s too slow, it looks to me like to go Pacquiao’s way.”
By Allan Fox: Roy Jones Jr., who is no stranger to being knocked out, says he’s taking a wait and see approach about whether Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) is back from his brutal knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez from last December. Jones Jr. says Pacquiao has done the right thing in taking a year off from the sport, and he thinks it’s a positive that he’s not someone that has had to take off weight for him to fight. But Jones Jr. says he’s still very interested in seeing whether Pacquiao can take a hard shot from Pacquiao’s opponent Brandon Rios in their fight this Saturday night in Macao, China.
Jones Jr. said via ESPN “I want to see how Manny takes the first clean punch landed by Rios, and then I’ll know how he is.
By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum doesn’t expect Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) to show any signs from his previous 6th round knockout loss when he steps inside the ring on Saturday night to face Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) in Macao, China.
Arum believes that because Pacquiao was knocked out with a sudden punch from Juan Manuel Marquez rather than from having taken a sustained beating that led to the KO, it will mean that Pacquiao will shown no negative signs or ill affects from his KO last December.
This is Arum’s belief that he has about Pacquiao, and he feels that he’s going to be rejuvenated for this fight.
By Mark Havey: A day of reckoning awaits Congressman Manny Pacquiao. Saturday night we will see the former pound 4 pound king face off against Brandon Rios. The fight is a dream for the fans who like to witness a display of courage, heart and endurance.
Pacquiao has already had a career than far exceeds what anyone expected. A poor kid from the Philippines grew up to bring national pride and hope to a nation that needed it. He won title after title, resulting in him becoming the only 8 weight world champion ever. Soon he was universally hailed as pound 4 pound the greatest boxer on the planet. But all of that came to an end. Some blame it on age, others say it was due to his increasing focus on politics, some say he hasn’t faded at all.