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Mike Alvarado has been officially charged with one count of possession of a weapon ahead of his January 24 rubber match with Brandon Rios. Alvarado, who cannot possess a weapon because he is an ex-con, was released from custody on $3,500 bond after being stopped and arrested on January 3.
The fight with Rios is not in jeopardy, though, and he will appear in Denver County Court again on Friday.
The 34-year-old Alvarado has had several scrapes with the law over the years, including a couple of jail stints, so none of this is really anything new for him. There is plenty of concern over where his career will go after this fight, as there's a pretty good chance that Alvarado will wind up jailed once again, and as he begins to age, there's not a lot of time left to be a top fighter headlining HBO cards.
Alvarado (34-3, 23 KO) is 1-3 in his last four fights. He lost to Rios (32-2-1, 23 KO) in a Fight of the Year candidate in October 2012, then avenged that loss in March 2013, before losing two straight fights to Ruslan Provodnikov and Juan Manuel Marquez.