Brandon Rios confirms he’ll be fighting on August 4th

Boxingnews24.com

By Jim Dower: Brandon ‘Bam Bam’ Rios says he’ll be back inside the ring on August 4th to resume his pro career. Rios (34-4-1, 25 KOs) didn’t name his opponent for his next fight in August, but it’s said to be former WBC welterweight champion Victor ‘Vicious’ Ortiz (32-6-3, 25 KOs), who is coming off of a competitive 12 round draw against former two division world champion Devon Alexander last February.

”Team Rios looks like August 4th We will be back in the ring! Keep everyone posted! #teamrios,” ‘Bam Bam’ Rios said on his Twitter.

Rios is going to need a good game plan and solid defense for him to beat Ortiz. Rios can’t just walk Ortiz down like he tried to do against his last opponent Danny Garcia, considering how hard ‘Vicious’ Victor punches. Rios is noted for having a good chin, but it betrayed him in his last fight against Danny Garcia.

Rios has a good chance of winning this fight if he can withstand the southpaw Ortiz’s natural size, speed and power advantage. The 31-year-old Ortiz has problems with his punch resistance during his 14-year pro career, but there’s nothing wrong with his hand speed and punching power. Ortiz stills very powerful for the 147lb division. He’s arguably got more power and offensive weapons than Rios’ last opponent Danny Garcia, who stopped him in the 9th round last February.

If Rios allows Ortiz to land the same amount of shots Garcia did, there’s little chance that he’s going to be able to last long against him. Ortiz does very good against journeyman level fighters, and Rios at this stage in his career looks little better than that type of fighter. Ortiz might do a job on Rios like he did in stopping journeyman Saul Corral in the 4th round last year in July.

In the last four years, Ortiz has wins over Saul Corral, Manuel Perez, and Gilberto Sanchez Leon. Those are Ortiz’s only wins. Ortiz has suffered losses against Andre Berto, Luis Collazo, Josesito Lopez and Floyd Mayweather Jr. What’s troubling about those defeats is all four of them came by stoppage.

There is surprisingly a great deal of interest from the boxing fans in the Rios vs. Ortiz fight despite the careers of both fighters having long gone stale. The interest is there because this is a grudge match that has been talked about for many years. For some reason, Rios and Ortiz never were able to put together a fight between them. Right now, it’ll be a shot in the arm for both in terms of reviving interest in their respective careers. Rios, 32, has lost two out of his last three fights since 2015. T

Things are looking bleak for the former WBA World lightweight champion Rios, who last held that title seven years ago in 2011. Rios lost the WBA belt in December 2011 after he failed to make weight for his title defense against John Murray. Rios won the fight by an 11th round knockout, but he was still stripped of his WBA 135lb title after coming in overweight.

Rios’ career hasn’t been the same since then. He beat Mike Alvarado in two out of three fights, but he then barely escaped losses with controversial wins over Richard Abril and Diego Chaves. In 2013, Rios’ promoters at Top Rank matched him up against the popular Manny Pacquiao, but he was easily beaten by a wide 12 round unanimous decision. In the eyes of a lot of boxing fans, Rios resembled a punching bag in the Pacquiao fight. Pacquiao looked like he eased off in the later rounds of the fight to take it easy on the badly over-matched Rios. Since that loss, Rios’ hasn’t looked good in losses to Tim Bradley and Danny Garcia. His only wins in the last four years have come against Diego Chaves, Mike Alvarado and Aaron Herrera.