Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado fight their rubber match Saturday on the first HBO Boxing After Dark program of 2015. It seems a mite anticlimactic.
The first fight in October 2012 was a slugfest, which means Rios was able to lure Alvarado into his kind of fight, stopping the previously unbeaten Denver fighter in the seventh round. In the second bout, in March 2013, Alvarado maintained control and won a clear-cut decision.
Yet it?s a bit difficult to summon enthusiasm for the welterweights? rubber match, which is being held in the Denver suburb of Broomfield, Colo., if you base that enthusiasm on the combatants? recent performances.
Rios was thoroughly thrashed in his 12-round bout with Manny Pacquiao in late 2013 and later eked out a close fight with Argentina?s Diego Chaves when the latter was disqualified, somewhat unfairly. Alvarado has been outclassed by Juan Manuel Marquez and overwhelmed by Ruslan Provodnikov in the meantime.
So Saturday?s match isn?t quite an elite-level bout. The real attraction is that a Rios fight is almost bound to become a war despite his intentions to avoid a rock-?em, sock ?em brawl.
?People always say ?Brandon can?t fight fighters that box.? ? Rios said this week. ?I can?t get too comfortable with one person, with one style, and I got so comfortable with a guy attacking and putting pressure on –taking a shot to give a shot. I got too comfortable. Earlier in my career, I was moving my head and I was moving around; I was boxing and trading punches when I had to. But I just got too comfortable. ? I learned from the Pacquiao fight. And I learned a lot from the Chaves fight. I reached deep down inside me and did a soul-search, and I am ready for whomever now.?
At least Rios (32-2-1, 23 knockouts) is talking specifics. Alvarado (34-3, 23 knockouts) claims he?s none the worse for wear from fighting Rios, Chavez and Provodnikov ,and that ?it has been a learning experience as far as my technique and generalship in the ring and everything that goes along with it … I have grown over the past few years as a fighter and as a man inside and outside the ring. ? It is on me to take those adjustments and utilize them in that ring.?
Whatever that means. If Alvarado doesn?t have a specific plan, and Rios does, that seems to be the likely ruling factor. Look for another war, the setting in which Rios thrives.
