Bob Arum spoke to ThaBoxingVoice.com regarding the future of one of his fighters, Brandon Rios, who just happens to be one of the most exciting fighters in the sport of boxing. Rios had a 2012 where he was on both sides of the spectrum. He had a controversial victory over Richard Abril while being forced to try and make the lightweight limit. He then returned in October of 2012 with a sensational victory over Mike Alvarado in what was ThaBoxingVoice.com’s Fight of The Year. The fight was so good that Bob Arum sees a need for making it happen all over again instead of fighting other top 140 lb guys like Danny Garcia and Lucas Matthysse, who are apart of Golden Boy Promotions, Top Rank’s rival promoter.
“Brandon Rios has a tough fight March 30th at Mandalay Bay. He’ll be squaring off against Mike Alvarado, that’s a fight all the fans want to see. Their first fight was great and then we’ll see. There’s a lot of 140lbers out there that Rios can fight if he’s successful against Mike Alvarado,” Arum told ThaBoxingVoice.com
When asked about Danny Garcia, Arum dismissed the notion not even acknowledging the Philly fighter to explain how great Rios-Alvarado 1 was. “That fight was at Home Depot Center. Everybody held their breath throughout that fight. They never stopped hitting each other, first you thought one guy was going to win, and then you thought the other was going to win. It was a great fight that everyone appreciated hence why we’re doing it again.”
Arum has recently went on record as saying he would pay Golden Boy for Abner Mares’ services to fight Nonito Donaire which was in turn counter offered with Golden Boy offering to pay Top Rank for Brandon Rios’ services against Lucas Matthysse. Arum was outraged and stated, “I’m not trading fighters like baseball cards. We mentioned that when we were looking at Rios for Manny Pacquiao. So if you’re Rios, you’re saying fuck this, you’re not going to trade me when you can make millions of dollars fighting Manny Pacquiao.”
Arum went on to insinuate that Matthysse may even be a step back for Rios. “In the Matthysse case, Rios is the A level fighter and draw. If they made a fight with Mayweather, Rios wouldn’t be the A level fighter, Rios is scheduled to fight Alvarado again on March 30th. We’re making a name for Rios with the last fight, people other than boxing people are noticing, and hopefully the next fight will be equally as good. Matthysse is not a bad fighter, I’m not saying that, but who the fuck knows who he is? Didnt he get beat by Zab Judah?”
