Brandon Rios: I have four more years in boxing

Brandon Rios isn’t done yet. Coming off a knockout loss to Danny Garcia in February, the all-action fighter will be back in the ring this weekend when he takes on Ramon Alvarez, the older brother of Canelo Alvarez. But Rios isn’t just looking to ride into the sunset with just any ol’ win, he has designs on recapturing a world title.

In fact Rios tells ESPN that he still has four more years in the sport, and that he’s motivated to capture another world title before he’s done for good.

“I have four more f—— years, four more years. Thirty-five years old, I’m done. I’m calling it quits. That’s my deadline, I’d done [after that]. But what I promised my little girl, Mia Rios, my 7-year-old daughter, is that when I win a world title again, it’s going to be her world title. I’m giving that belt to her.”

Personally, I shudder to think of the damage Rios could sustain in four more years in this brutal sport, especially if he intends to vie for a world title. I mean, at age 32 Rios has already been through about as many grueling battles as anyone in the sport, and he certainly isn’t better now than he was several years ago. Ultimately, though, that’s not my decision to make, so I’ll hop off my soapbox.

Rios previously announced his retirement from boxing following a wipeout loss to Timothy Bradley in late 2015. But like many fighters, that retirement didn’t stick. Rios felt that familiar itch and would be fighting again about 6-months later, stopping Aaron Herrera before stepping back up in competition, only to get crushed by Danny Garcia earlier this year.

“I got caught with a punch like everybody else does,” he said in looking back at the Garcia fight. “It happens to the best of us. It happens to the best. I thought I could take a punch, but I guess I couldn’t. I guess I don’t have the best chin in the world, but at the end of the day, it is what it is. It happened. When you drop your hand and you get caught with a no-look punch. So it is what it is, and we move forward.”

In moving forward Rios assesses that he was performing well in the Garcia fight until he got hit with that big right hand, so he believes he still has what it takes to compete a the top of the 147lb division. But there are a lot of good, in-their-prime titleholders in the division at the moment, all of whom would be expected to mop the floor with Rios at this stage. Yet, Rios still believes in himself just the same.

Rios kicks off the first of his three-fight deal with DAZN this Saturday.