Can Rios comfortably fight at this higher weight where he will not have an advantage over his opponent? Can he cope with Mike's power? Good test for this we will see if he can fight in this division..mikes a big strong light welter. If Brandon can fend off Mike's strong punches with his tight guard and quite often walk through his shots out for Rios.... what do you guys think
Rios was 150 in the ring at lightweight...He's going to be 155 or so at 140 and much stronger and more powerful. The move up should do him good. I just think he's too active for Alvarado.
Alvarado weighed 157 vs Prescott and was a former wrestler. I'm pretty confident he'll be stronger than Rios, but I think Rios is more skilled
Alvarado isn't going to be much bigger than Rios on Fight Night if at all. I meant he'd be bigger and stronger at the weight. Not bigger than Alvarado. Sorry for my lack of clarity.
I agree Rios is the much skilled fighter his punches are more natural and fluent along with his offensive arsenal...I'm not sure if his power will be significant as it was at lightweight...he'll at least need enough to gain Alvarado respect
:good On another note, Rios does not get enough credit for taking on the Ring Magazine's #5 ranked junior welter right off the bat at 140. He could have easily taken a "tune-up" fight.
It'll be Interesting to see if Rios can comfortably fend off Mike's offense with his gloves or head..if he can do this confident mike will be in trouble and have no choice but to go out on his shield and through everything at Rios before getting stopped or luckily get carried to the final bell..
I love this fight. I’m looking forward to it more then I’ve been looking forward to pretty much any other fight this year. And it seems like I could talk for days about what a sweet match-up it is. Here is an amalgamation of the things I’ve been saying on some of the other threats on this fight: This is 100% guaranteed to be a good fight provided each can take the other guy's punch. Rios throws faster shorter punches then Alvarado and has a better guard He is the smaller fighter but I expect his technique to make him the superior fighter in this fight. Rios was a USA Olympic alternate as an amateur. He has a lot of skill for a man who fights with his style. He sure as hell isn't some librado andrade "I'll let you hit my face until you're tired and then I'll club you to death" type fighter. He throws wicked combinations and turning his punches over like few others in boxing. His defense is again not that bad either. Alvarado has **** defense against a boxer and even worse defense at 1 foot to mid range. The only place I think he's safe against Rios is way outside or chest to chest....He can't win from the outside (he just isn't that good of a boxer, although he is better then rios) so he'll have to fight close. He may hold an advantage chest to chest because rios seems to need about a foot to operate, but the problem for Alvarado is that with his lead hand low style he's a ****ing sitting duck at that 1 foot range and rios is a master at turning chest to chest into that 1 foot range and then ripping hard-fast combinations. Alvarado's never fought a guy who can light him up like Rios can. His combinations are short, accurate and powerful. Alvarado throws wide clubing shots and doesn't put them together well. Say what you want about Rios missing weight and winning a robbery Rios has at least mixed it with world class fighters and his win over Acosta was legit. Mike alvarado's claim to fame is out lasting a B- fighter he was losing too. Brandon Rios's claim to fame is beating a world class champion. I know there's a size difference and probably a power difference but as far as I see it size is the only advantage Alvarado is bringing into this fight. Only problem for Rios is that the size and power my be all that Alvarado needs to defeat Rios. Alvarado has a tremendous hard and to quote the movie goone (you all should watch it) he has the “****”, i.e. the stuff that separates the real badasses from the fake ones. With a size disadvantage it could very well turn out that this is too much to overcome for Rios . He has been hurt before against Acosta. I don't think Alvarado has ever been hurt. Even against prescott. Both fighters will get hit a lot. It could be that Alvarado can hurt Rios but Rios’ power just isn't enough to keep him in the fight. Alvarado varies his game more then Rios and he can box from the outside or up close. Rios can be out boxed and out maneuvered but Alvarado won't be the guy to do it. If rios gets beat it'll be size and attrition that do him in. Basically to sum it up, Brandon has the skills. Alvarado has the size and strengths. Alvarado can box but not well enough to beat rios. If he is going to win it will have to be going forward for most of the fight. He could get Rios late but he'll have to walk through hell to do it first. His punches are wider and slow. And his defense is much worse then Rios' D. I expect Rios by 7-9th round KO. Alvarado could score a 10 or 11th round KO. But that would be an upset in my mind. Both men are coming to win and neither can win fighting backwards. This fight is guaranteed to be a war. And someone is definitely getting knocked out.
Yea, against a lightweight who was smaller in size. He's stepping up in size and can't bully like he did in LW.
