Robert Garcia trained brawler, Brandon Rios, has warned anyone thinking he is washed up and/or doesn’t have the tools to deal with WBO welterweight champion, Tim Bradley next weekend, is likely to be in for a rude awakening.
Rios challenges “Desert Storm” at the Thomas and Mack Centre in Las Vegas, live on HBO/Boxnation (UK) and claims he is itching to get back in the ring, having not boxed since January’s third fight with old rival, Mike Alvarado, whom he destroyed in 3 swift and aggressive rounds.
“I’m motivated to get back in the ring again,” Rios said to fighthubtv. “I’m ready to show people that I’m not done yet. I’m young and I got a lot of gas left in my tank. I’m not done.
“People think I’m punch drunk or a shot fighter? It ain’t like that, I’m ready … I’m focused only on Tim Bradley and I’m going out there just to win, whatever happens, happens but I’m there to win,” he added.
Rios has endured a frustrating few months since the Alvarado rubber match, with a high profile fight with Britain’s IBF welterweight champion, Kell Brook, falling through over the Summer, after a period of extensive negotiation between the two camps ultimately came to nothing.
Yet Rios knows that victory against Bradley – in his first fight with new trainer, Teddy Atlas – will propel him back towards the big fights against the likes of Brook, or even the winner of the Miguel Cotto/Saul Alvarez fight, and is promising that the all out aggressive fighter who beat up on Alvarado earlier this year, will be the one entering the ring to face Bradley next Saturday.
“You will see the guy that came out in the Mike Alvarado fight,” he said. “The Brandon Rios who started out, who people fell in love with….that’s the guy you’re gonna see.”
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