They’re At It Again: Rios Alvarado II Preview

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Yes fight fans, the time has come. After months of talking and only 5 and half months since the 1st classic, on Saturday night, it’s time for Rios-Alvarado part 2. Except this time, it will be for the WBO junior welterweight title in Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. In October of last year, Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado put on the type of show that hardcore and casual boxing fans dream of.

They talked before the fight about how it was going to be a war, there was no way it was going the distance, and that they were just going to slug it out. Thankfully for us, that’s exactly what they did. The fight was stopped by the ref in the 7th round, in what a few fans considered an early stoppage. I think it was valid because Rios was pounding on Alvarado and he didn’t throw a punch back for about 30 seconds, which is a very long time in boxing. However, even if you think it was a bad stoppage, Alvarado now gets his chance to get his revenge or Rios will get his chance to validate what happened the 1st time.

For the people that may not know as much about Brandon Rios as a hardcore fan, he is a Mexican-American  slugger that is the perfect type of fighter for new and casual fans. He throws a lot of hard punches, he doesn’t mind getting hit, and no one can question his heart. Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios is the type of fighter that will fight till his body doesn’t allow him to because his mind will not ever tell him to quit. Rios comes into this fight with a 31-0-1 record with 23 KOs. Now I have not been the biggest Rios fan because I felt he was unimpressive vs. John Murray and I felt he lost the fight after that to Richard Abril. However, no matter how I felt about Rios in those 2 fights, it very hard pressed to find anyone within range of his boxing weight that can win a slugging fight with him.

“Mile High” Mike Alvarado is another hard puncher who comes into this one with a 33-1 record with 23 KOs, with the only blemish being the loss to Rios last October. Alvarado is another fighter who loves to slug it out. Against most fighters, he is the more powerful guy and he also has a chin as he took some monstrous shots by Rios in the 1st fight and didn’t go down. The biggest question about Alvarado is will he let his pride stop him from doing what it takes to win this fight. He can’t use the Richard Abril strategy, but he can slow down and frustrate Rios. Alvarado has a background in wrestling and his best shot at winning would be holding, dirty boxing, and make Rios get too overanxious. Hopefully, he will then be able to capitalize on either a mistake or the stamina of Rios slowing him down.

There are 2 things going against Alvarado during this fight. First, he gets hit too much. He actually was hit a lot by Mauricio Herrera in his last fight before the Rios fight, but since Herrera has no power. He was able to with stand it and land the harder punches. There is a huge difference between Herrera’s power and the power of Brandon Rios. Second, as I said earlier, when it comes to an all out, drag out, slugfest type of fight, no one is better than Rios. This time Alvarado said he will box more and some think this fight may now be overhyped and it could go the distance. I don’t buy it. I feel this one will end before the 1st one did. Alvarado can win this fight if he keep Rios at a distance, roughs up Rios, makes it a dirty type of fight, but I feel when he gets hit, his immediate reaction will be to slug back and that’s bad news against Rios. Because of this, I have to go with Rios by 5th round TKO.

I cannot stress anymore how important this fight is. Some of the top fighters in the sport, Juan Manual Marquez and Manny Pacquiao, are 2 names that could be facing the winner. Someone like Tim Bradley, who had the exciting win a couple weeks ago, can also be added to that list. This isn’t just about pride or revenge. This is about a possible huge payday, probably the biggest of either fighter’s career. This fight may not be about life or death, but you sure won’t be able to tell when they will be going toe to toe in the bright lights of Vegas on Saturday night. Enjoy the fights.