Brandon Rios looks at Saturday’s third meeting of his all-action rivalry with Mike Alvarado as basically a win-or-go-home situation.
No, the winner won’t be exiled to retirement — although Alvarado, 34, has lost three of his previous four fights coming in. But Rios, 28, realizes how important it will be for him to create momentum and get his career back on track.
Rios (32-2-1, 23 KOs) enters Saturday’s 12-round welterweight bout (HBO, 9:45 p.m. ET/PT) at the 1stBank Center in Bloomfield, Colorado, fresh off a rocky two years in which he suffered defeats to Alvarado (in their March 2013 rematch) and Manny Pacquiao, along with claiming a dissatisfying disqualification win over Diego Chaves.
In order to defeat Alvarado (34-3, 23 KOs) — preferably in the same exciting style that entered their first two bouts into the all-time action pantheon — Rios is prepared to do whatever it takes. He recently spoke with ESPN.com about what this fight means to him:
The first two fights of your rivalry lived up to expectations and then some. How do you guys top that on Saturday? The way we top it is just to go out there and fight the way we fight. I’m pretty sure that’s what he is going to do. But if he thinks that I’m just going to come up and fight the way I fought the last two fights, no. In the first fight I wish I did a little more head movement walking in instead of just blocking shots and following him. The second fight I got so comfortable and I just kept brawling with him. I wasn’t cutting off the ring, I was just blocking shots. He did pick his shots off and I give him credit. He did get me good. But for the third fight I am ready to go back to basics and do what I did to get to the top.
Your trainer, Robert Garcia, recently said you are more motivated for this fight than he has ever seen you before. What is fueling your level of focus and determination? I am motivated this time. I’m really motivated. Honestly, I don’t like the way my promoter [Top Rank] forgot about me. I only fought one time [in 2014] and it sucked. I am supposed to fight twice a year. To me it felt like they forgot about me and I don’t like that. I don’t like how everybody is just [saying], “Oh, Brandon is done. He is just over with.” So I want to show the world and all the critics that I’m not done yet. Don’t sleep on me. I’m not dead yet. I’m ready and that is what motivates me to do my best because the winner goes up and for the loser it’s the end of his career. I don’t want that to happen. I’m still young in this sport.
You fought to a wild disqualification win over Chaves in your last bout. Do you take more positives or negatives from your performances and the way that fight played out? I take the bad from that fight. What happened in that fight was I wasn’t in the gym. After the Pacquiao fight I stayed away from the gym. I’m usually back in the gym two or three weeks later after my fights. This time, I actually took about eight months off. I was really f—ing out of shape. I was heavy when I came in. I wasn’t training or running as I was supposed to. I wasn’t motivated so when I went into that fight, I was me but not 100 percent me. So now what I took from that fight is that I’m getting a little bit older still and it’s harder for me to get back into shape once I get out of it. Now I’m ready. I’m back in it. After the [Chaves] fight I took a month off and I don’t have ring rust. I’m ready.
Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward grew to become close friends because of their trilogy while others like Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera have remained bitter rivals. Where do you and Alvarado stand on a personal level? Me and Alvarado don’t talk s— to each other. We don’t hate each other or anything like that. But when it comes to that ring we do hate each other. We respect each other out of the ring because we know what each other could bring and we know what we’re about. He’s like me and I’m like him. But once we get in the ring we want to kill each other, which is OK. That’s part of the sport.
How much do you believe Alvarado’s recent issues with the law will affect him on Saturday? I can’t really tell you that because that’s his problem. I’ve been in that situation and have been in trouble before — a lot, actually — early in my career and I learned from it. What’s holding me up is I have a great wife who helped me out and kept me under control. And when they told me they were going to take away my career, I just f—king manned up and said I’m done with this stuff. Now I’m better and at the end of the day that’s up to him and how well mentally he can deal with the situation.
What do you want people to remember most about your rivalry with Alvarado? I want them to remember us like how they remember Gatti and Ward. When we are done with boxing, I want them to say, “Man, do you remember their third fight? That was a great fight and they really gave their all.” Not only that, but I always wanted to be part of a trilogy and I am now. I’m very grateful and everything.
What is it about you and Alvarado squaring off that brings out the best in each other? Alvarado is like me, man. We’re two ghetto people. We’re from the ghetto. It is what it is. We say what’s on our minds and our fighting styles are similar. We come out and give it all and go balls to the wall. We give it all we can. The fans love that type of fight. People love that and that’s who we are.
Is this third fight more about finding out, once and for all, who is the toughest or is it more about securing a win at all costs? It’s a little bit of both. It really depends on how he is going to come out and prepare to fight. I’m ready for whatever he brings. If he comes out and fights with me and trade in the middle of the ring, I’m ready for that. If he is going to run around and try to catch me off guard like he did in the second fight, I’m ready for that too. This time in the gym I practiced for every angle. It’s really up to him how he wants to make this fight.
How will you adjust if he decides to spend more time moving than fighting? The second time when I fought him, I was just sparring him. This time we are going to cut the ring off, trap him in corners and let our hands loose more. Don’t try to look for one hard shot like I was doing the second fight. I need to let my hands go and throw different combinations and not just one shot. I know what I did wrong in that fight. I came into the fight thinking, “Knockout, knockout, knockout — easy fight.” It was not that and it was my mistake and now we are ready to go back and go for the win.
