Former 135-pound champ Brandon Rios is preparing for another big fight — November 7th in Las Vegas — this time against Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley. Rios has always been known as a brawler who has an iron chin, yet the key to this fight for him will be cutting off the ring.
Rios (33-2-1, 24KOs) has only fought once this year – a three round destruction against his rival Mike Alvarado in their trilogy way back in January. Now, Rios will face possibly the purest boxer to ever appear on his resume.
In an interview with Luis Sandoval of fighthype.com, Rios briefly went over his game plan for the upcoming clash.
“If he’s going to try to box [then] I got to make him fight me, which I think I can do that. And if he wants to box, then f*** yeah! I’ve been cutting off the ring very well and I’ve been doing it excellent in sparring.”
Rios also had some high praise for some of his sparring partners who have been doing very well moving around the ring to help Brandon prepare for Bradley. He mentioned one sparring partner who was physically strong, Jonathon Navarro, a 19-year-old from East LA who is 2-0 as a pro.
Rios is loved by many for his exciting fighting style and his confidence before each and every fight. He claims that he will cut off the ring against Bradley, but we can only know for sure come fight night.
Timothy Bradley may be one of the most gifted pure boxers in the welterweight division, and usually the matchup of boxer vs. brawler is a nightmare for the brawler. Yet, this saying may not hold true for this fight due to Bradley’s constant willingness to brawl, despite not being a big puncher.
Another thing to consider is if Teddy Atlas and whether or not he will have an effect on Bradley’s fight style? That is a question Brandon Rios cannot speculate on until he is in the ring with the California native.
Rios needs to be prepared to box for at least a few rounds against Bradley.
Ruslan Provodnikov nearly knocked Bradley out in the second round, yet Tim always seems to find a way out of the stickiest situations just as he did in the last round of his last fight with Jessie Vargas.
If all goes right for Rios he may become a two-division world champ, but whether this will be Bradley’s first defense of his WBO title will not be decided until this weekend at the WBO convention.
Nevertheless, it is insignificant because this should be a marvelous fight and the fans should expect to see fireworks from both men.
