Pacquiao vs Rios: Brandon Rios expects 'one hell of a good fight'

Brandon Rios is already itching to go with Manny Pacquiao, and we're still six months from fight night. The two will meet in Macau on November 23, live on HBO pay-per-view.

Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO) seems to believe the fight will live up to action expectations:

"It's going to be a very good fight. We both like to fight. We both hardly back down. We both throw a lot of punches in bunches. So it's going to be one helluva good fight. I can't wait for this fight, because it's going to be exciting.

"Not only that, but I get to see a part of the world that I otherwise would never have gotten to see in my lifetime, and that's China. So that's pretty crazy, man."

The 27-year-old Oxnard brawler also expects that Pacquiao won't "run," as he continues to say Mike Alvarado did in their March rematch, which Alvarado won by decision:

"Alvarado didn't box. If you call running boxing, that's not boxing. Boxing is staying in the pocket, making him miss shots, throwing a good jab, throwing a good this and that; body shots, uppercuts, and making me miss and countering very well. Juan Manuel Marquez is a good boxer. Floyd Mayweather is an awesome boxer. So there's a difference between boxing and running."

I think I understand what Rios is saying, that Alvarado's plan wasn't so much to use movement, or to make Rios miss, as much as it was first and foremost to avoid contact. You may disagree with him (I do, personally), but I do believe what he's saying has more to it than it may seem at a glance, and isn't quite so easily dismissed as it may appear. There's at least some logic here, if that makes sense. There's a point he's making, I think.

But if Rios had issues with Alvarado, who in his mind mostly just didn't want to engage, and major issues with Richar Abril a year ago, even though Rios got a bogus win, how does he handle the in-and-out darting of Pacquiao, not to mention the speed?