Tonight marked the 3rd fight in the Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios and Mike “Mile High” Alvarado trilogy. The first fight was fought on Rios’ territory of Carson, California, the second fight was on neutral ground at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. So, it only made sense to host the third and presumably last fight in Alvarado’s backyard of Broomfield, Colorado at the 1stBank Center.
The reports heading into this 3rd fight suggested that Alvarado was dealing with some serious distractions. Of course, everybody was aware of the gun possession charge, but there were other unconfirmed rumors that extended beyond the charges.
In the first round, Rios came out trying to establish an effective distance and found success up-close. He landed clean, hard shots that had Alvarado grasping at clinches and holding as much as possible with the hopes of resetting and reestablishing his game plan.
The second round wasn’t much different, with the exception of Rios’ ferocity. Rios was as accurate and his punch output, which was 80 total punches in the 1st round, was still high, but he was landing harder shots with more authority.
Alvarado escaped the 2nd round without hitting the deck, although his face was bloody and bruised. He’d been beating over 6 minutes and it was clear that Rios was not interested in allowing Alvarado to get comfortable or produce some sort of offense. Rios was relentless and he wasn’t going to let the fight become a “Fight of the Year” candidate if he could help it.
The third round picked up where the second left off and Rios was unleashing ripping body shots and well-designed uppercuts with bad intentions. It appeared as though Rios couldn’t miss while Alvarado refused to throw.
Rios landed a flurry mid-round that caused Alvarado to take a knee and get a much-needed break. Alvarado got to his feet at the count of 9 and Rios stayed patient as he moved forward with the pressure. Rios didn’t want to gas himself out, but he was finding all the holes in Alvarado’s guard and beat his face to a pulp.
Alvarado was able to survive the round but just barely. As he sat in the corner, Alvarado mentioned to his trainer that he couldn’t see. The trainer told the referee Jay Nady, who asked in turn asked Alvarado if he wanted to continue, to which he responded “yes.” The ringside doctor eventually got involved and asked Alvarado how many fingers he was holding up and when he answered wrong the fight was stopped.
It appeared like Alvarado’s pride wouldn’t let him say the words ‘I quit’ but he did appear to be looking for a way out.
In the post-fight interview, Alvarado didn’t make any excuses and instead confirmed reports that he had not trained properly.
“I wasn’t training like I should’ve, this is what I get. I wasn’t prepared as I should’ve been,” Alvarado told HBO’s Jim Lampley in the post-fight interview.
It was a beat up version of Alvarado in the ring tonight, but we shouldn’t take anything away from Rios’ performance because even though his opponent was on a platter Rios still did a lot of really special things and just looked more like the fighter that he was at lightweight.
With the win, Rios gets to stay in the mix and will seek out a significant fight for the summer.
As for Alvarado, he doesn’t deserve to be on TV after a performance like this and he needs to prove he’ll take fighting serious before he’s allowed “in tough,” again.
It would probably serve him to consider hanging up the gloves before suffering serious damage if he hasn’t already. But Alvarado confirmed the opposite at the end of his post-fight interview, simply saying “I’ll be back.”
Ramirez def Vlasov UD10 (Super Middleweights):
In the televised co-feature, the highly touted Mexican power puncher Gilberto Ramirez squared off against Russian fighter Maxim Vlasov.
Ramirez entered the fight with a promotion that focused on his potential to reach boxing stardom amongst Mexican and Hispanic fans in the US. His promoter Bob Arum spoke about Ramirez’s prospects of reaching or surpassing the popularity of Canelo Alvarez or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Both fighters came in with 30 wins and it was a chance for the winner to separate themselves from the pack.
Ramirez struggled throughout the fight but did enough body work to gain an edge on the scorecards.
Vlasov stayed in the fight and even managed to take a couple rounds with some accurate power punching.
However, Ramirez stayed active and displayed a more decisive brand of power, winning on all cards with the judges’ scores of 97-93 twice and 96-94.
