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Former lightweight champion, Brandon Bam Bam Rios had a very bad week. He spent the whole week starving, fighting the scale, trying to make 135 pounds weight limit prior to his Saturday WBA championship fight with Richard Abril. Brandon lost the battle on the scale on Friday when he came in weighing in at 137 pounds and than an hour later at 139 pounds. Young brawler from Oxnard was visibly upset because he could not win back his title. He was also penalized $45,000 for not making the weight. $50,000 bonus offered to the winner by Top Rank would not be possible for Rios to win either, because it was offered to the champion to be and Brandon could not win the title. Saturday night things got from bad to worse; Brandon came in to the ring listless and despite his best efforts could not inflict damage on Richard Abril who stuck to his game plan sharp shooting on the outside and holding excessively on the inside. ?This wasn?t my best performance,? said Rios in his post fight interview. Still judges awarded a split decision victory to Brandon Rios. Judge Adalaide Byrd scored the contest 117-111 for Abril overruled by Glenn Trowbrdge :115-113 and Jerry Roth 116-112 in favor of Rios. Controversial split decision victory created more questions than answers. Brandon Rios came to the media room to answer all the questions. Check out Brandon?s post fight interview.
