Brandon Rios came in slightly over and looked gaunt at yesterday’s weight-in for his welterweight showdown with WBO champion, Tim Bradley tonight in Vegas, taking the marginal extra weight off after visiting the bathroom.
Rios weighed in at 147.2 lbs, repeating problems on the scales he has had previously in his career when down at 135, notably against Richar Abril and Britain’s John Murray.
Tyson Fury says that he is the shape of his life ahead of his Nov. 28, challenge to dominant heavyweight champion, Wladimir Klitschko, in Germany, posting pictures on social media from camp that are proof positive of his claims.
A trim looking Fury has spoken to Sky Sports ahead of the fight to reaffirm his seriousness about attempting to dethrone the champion, shutting down those who had questioned the 6’9″ Brit’s commitment to getting in shape when the fight was first officially announced.
It would appear that WBO welterweight champion, Tim Bradley’s new trainer Teddy Atlas, has taken the lion’s share of headlines ahead of tonight’s HBO clash with Brandon Rios, though Bradley claims he is more than fine with that and fans will see the fruits of their labour in the ring.
It was following June’s fight with Jessie Vargas – in which Bradley was badly buzzed in the dying seconds – that ‘Desert Storm’ dropped long-time cornerman, Joel Diaz, in favour of the limelight-friendly Atlas, who famously overshadowed Michael Moorer’s hard fought 1994 victory over Evander Holyfield with his animated words between rounds.
Matchroom boxing’s Eddie Hearn, has claimed that cruiserweight contender, Tony Bellew’s opponent for the Dec. 12 ‘Bad Intentions’ card in London, is a fighter big in both name and status.
Bellew, (25-2-1, 16ko) has had a pretty unimpressive 2015 in the ring, returning from filming new ‘Rocky’ spin-off movie, ‘Creed’ to face unheralded Croatian, Ivica Bacurin (22-8-1, 12ko) in June, eventually forcing a stoppage in the final round of a fight that would have put a glass eye to sleep, before then stopping Latvian journeyman, Arturs Kulikauski’s (16-26-5, 8ko) in September, in another performance of little consequence.
Tim Bradley will walk in as favourite with the oddsmakers when he defends his WBO welterweight title against Brandon Rios on Saturday night in Las Vegas, a fact that doesn’t bother the challenger, who alluded to the odds as meaningless – or in his own choice phrasing – as ‘bulls***.’
Rios hasn’t boxed since he destroyed old foe, Mike Alvarado, way back in January, in what was their third fight, although the Robert Garcia trained fighter feels that not only is he being underestimated against Bradley, he isn’t getting the credit he feels he deserves, and still won’t even if he pulls off the win, as was the case against Alvarado, who clearly turned up ‘out of sorts’ that night.
Manny Pacquiao has revealed FOUR potential names are in the frame for his scheduled final hurrah on Apr. 9 2016, though Floyd Mayweather is not among them.
A growing belief exists that Pacquiao could rematch Mayweather in the new MGM, Las Vegas Arena, which has a projected opening date of April 2016, although given the Filipino’s latest comments and Mayweather’s assertions he remains retired, a mega-money rematch seems unlikely at the moment, and would admittedly be a tough sell after their disappointing first fight back in May.
WBO featherweight champion, Vasyl Lomachenko (4-1, 2ko), claims that his mission in boxing is to be not only technically the best he can, yet to forever focus on showcasing those skills as a form of art, each and every time he steps between the ropes.
The Ukrainian amateur standout was beaten just the once in 397 contests as an amateur, and boxes on the under-card of the Tim Bradley/Brandon Rios welterweight clash on HBO PPV Saturday night, squaring off against little known Mexican, Romulo Koaschia (25-4, 15ko).
WBC middleweight champion, Miguel Cotto’s trainer, Freddie Roach, believes his fighter is the smarter and more technically proficient going into his Nov. 21 clash with ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, and that those smarts, as well as body shots, will be key to a victory Roach sees coming within ‘seven or eight rounds.’
The 155 lb catch-weight clash for the WBC title is one of the biggest fights of the year, and while Cotto will be both the older, and smaller man on the night, Roach believes his smarts and experience will be a crucial difference maker against the enormously popular Mexican challenger, who Roach claims ‘isn’t that great a fighter.’
IBF super middleweight champion, James DeGale (21-1,14ko), says that assuming he gets past his Nov. 28 date with Lucian Bute in Canada, then a big unification with WBC champion, Badou Jack is firmly on his radar.
The Londoner, who is with influential advisor, Al Haymon, won his title on the PBC platform against Andre Dirrell in Boston back in May, and makes the maiden defence of his IBF trinket out in the veteran’s Canadian backyard, also under the PBC banner.
Former 140 lb world champion, Ruslan Provodnikov (24-4, 17ko), is chasing a second world title, a goal he hopes to achieve under the tutelage of new trainer, Joel Diaz, beginning the journey this Saturday in Monte Carlo, when he fights little known Mexican, Jesus Alvarez Rodriguez (14-0, 11ko) over 10 rounds at 147.
Make no mistake that Rodriguez should present nothing but a formality for Provodnikov, who has cited his struggle to get a network TV date as the main reason for facing what many consider a less-than-decent, untested opponent away from the US, the country which has been his fighting ‘home’ in recent years.