Mancini was quicker, had better stamina and could put his punches together in a better way. Mancini by TKO, late rounds....
I see this similar to Arturo Frias. I think Mancini wins this early.. Ray had some good power if he could land it.
Espana, Frias, Kim, and Ramirez were big wins, Kim fight gets remembered more for the poor guy dying, but he was good contender. Espana fight was surprise. Mancini was legit fighter, he gets lumped in with some White hope of his era unfortunately.
This is probably a fight that Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini's braintrust/manager Dave Wolf(R.I.P.) would think long and hard about doing before getting together with promoter Bob Arum, who promoted a good sum of Mancini's fights and presently promotes Brandon Rios, and actually doing it due to Rios' reckless yet exciting style. Mancini vs Rios is a fight that in the virtual world Wolf would actually pull the trigger finger on much quickly than say fights between Mancini against Edwin "El Chapo" Rosario, "Rockin" Robin Blake, Tyrone "The Butterfly" Crawley, Harry Arroyo or a Howard Davis Jr., who still believe it or not would've presented Mancini with a nice juicy payday immediately after primed fights against a primed "Macho" Camacho and Aarron "The Hawk" Pryor based on his Olympic Gold/Val Barker award pedigree and huge fat television contracts with CBS, ABC & NBC to boot. All of the aftermentioned fighters styles are much sharper and skilled at their bests than Rios is and that would make the difference in the fight actually taken place over those guys first. This would no doubt be an all out fireworks affair between two exciting pugilistic warriors, whether the fights carried live on premium cable HBO or Showtime, or Pay Per View/Closed Circuit TV and it ends the only way a fight of this particular magnitude can end by knockout. Mancini comes out the gates early starting off quick with his general haymakers and bodywork in the first four and a half rounds and Rios withstands the assault. Then at the midway point between rounds 5 and 8 Rios comes on strong with his deadly assualt of bodywork and vicious right hands before Mancini gets his second wind midway through round 9. By this time both fighters faces would be masked with lumps, cuts and bruises but Mancini's championship experience in going 15-rounds four times at least, and even though that record stands at 1-3(1ko), would come into play and in his favor and after almost putting Rios away in the 10th frame Mancini would finish hin for the knockout in the 11th round in an unforgettable fight of the year campaign slugfest and in a fight that would see Mancini, virtually speaking, at his best both physically and emotionally since his nationally televised fatal knockout of Duk Koo Kim.
