Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO) is preparing for the biggest fight of his life when he faces Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO) this coming Saturday night from Macao, China, live on HBO pay-per-view. Here's a video look back at some of Rios' biggest fights to date. I'll add my own comments here, for kicks. For S's and G's.
Brandon Rios DQ-7 Anthony Peterson (Sept. 11, 2010)
Rios' HBO debut showed everyone exactly what Rios can do, as he drew Peterson into a brawl and dropped him in round five. In response, Peterson laid in so many low blows that even Russell Mora had to call for the DQ.
Brandon Rios TKO-5 Omri Lowther (Nov. 13, 2010)
This got moved up to feature on the Pacquiao-Margarito undercard. Rios beat Lowther up as expected. There wasn't much to this one.
Brandon Rios TKO-11 John Murray (Dec. 3, 2011)
Faced with a fellow come-forward brawler, Rios missed weight and didn't look great early, but he wore Murray out over the fight, demolishing him with uppercuts in the trenches, bloodying and stopping the tough Englishman in a pretty entertaining bout.
Brandon Rios TKO-7 Mike Alvarado (Oct. 13, 2012)
Living up to the pre-fight hype, Rios and Alvarado tore into one another in Rios' official move to 140 pounds. Trading back and forth, Alvarado was doing pretty well until Rios clocked him in the sixth round, stopping him in the next frame when referee Pat Russell stepped in.
Mike Alvarado UD-12 Brandon Rios (Mar. 30, 2013)
Not quite as great as the first fight, because this time Alvarado was able to keep his composure and box more, and he proved the better fighter from the outside.
NOT DISCUSSED
Rios won his first world title at lightweight in February 2011, rallying to stop Miguel Acosta, who was handily outboxing the slugger for much of the fight. This was televised by Showtime.
In a highly-anticipated fight, Rios knocked out Urbano Antillon in three rounds in September 2011. This was televised by Showtime.
Rios scored a flat-out pure 100% made in the USA robbery win over Richar Abril in April 2012, a decision so bad that I couldn't even focus on the Juan Manuel Marquez-Serhiy Fedchenko fight that followed on the Top Rank pay-per-view broadcast. HBO distributed this show, but did not provide commentators or anything, and the fight's "highlights" make Rios look pretty bad. He also missed weight again for this fight.