By Nick Bellafatto
Looking a bit stiff to start things off in the evenings main event, Denver, Colorado’s “Mile High” Mike Alvarado (34-1, 23 KO’s) would over the course of twelve complete rounds loosen up to by fights end garner a unanimous decision verdict over previously undefeated Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) of Oxnard, California. This in their much anticipated rematch telecast on HBO and held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada this past Saturday night.
The final tallies would read 115-113 twice, and 114-113 in favor of Alvarado who would not only exact revenge against the former lightweight champ and now 140 pound brawler Rios, but in sweetening the pot “Mile High” Mike would additionally earn the distinction of becoming the WBO interim junior welterweight champion.
This circumstance sets up for Alvarado a variety of future potential opponents to include facing the likes of WBO 140 pound top dog Juan Manuel Marquez, WBO welterweight champ Timothy Bradley, or even Filipino icon Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao who vows to return sometime in September.
But despite this stellar list of top pound-for-pound prizefighters and the monetary possibilities that go with it, perhaps the most desirable of opponents for Alvarado from his own perspective, as well as from the perspective of fight fans the world over, is non other than Brandon Rios himself.
This would be a totally fitting situation in that it represents a rubber match, or exclamation point if you will on what would be another of boxing’s storied trilogies. “Brandon gave me a shot to redeem myself. I’ll give him a shot for the trilogy,” said the victorious Mike Alvarado. “It’s up to Bob Arum and the promoters so we’ll see what happens.”
Rios would also comment post fight on this very subject. “What can I say. I won the first one so they want to make a third one. So we got to make a third one. He won the second one so third one we got to take it back home again baby.”
Adding a wrinkle to his game plan Mike Alvarado would turn the tide in the return match by exhibiting lateral movement from the very first round on. “It was that movement I was talking about, stated Alvarado. “That focus to stay on the movement, the game plan, the strategic ways that I did all camp. I capitalized on it and I did what I had to do to win this fight.”
Surviving a surprisingly stiff jab from “Bam Bam” Rios in round 2 that would buckle the Denver fighter, Alvarado would return the favor by wobbling his foe in the third, and then eighth frames in a fight where many of the rounds were nearly too close to call.
With that said however, it was during the majority of rounds up until the tenth stanza that “Mile High” Mike Alvarado would land some of the more visibly appealing shots that had perhaps built him up an ever so slight lead on the scorecards. In fact, at the end of nine complete in this nip and tuck battle, Alvarado according to Compubox had astonishingly landed 212 punches to Rios’s 210 connects.
But eerily reminiscent of a contest where apparent points leader Oscar De La Hoya would get on his get on his bike down the stretch against Felix “Tito” Trinindad only to see victory elude the “Golden Boy,” Mike Alvarado would do much of the same in rounds 10-12, throwing so few punches in the face of an onrushing and desperate Brandon Rios as to make one wonder if this was the right strategy.
Suffice it to say that “Mile High” Mike in the eyes of the judges had by the final bell done enough to secure the win. “That first fight, it was prematurely stopped. I came back with a better game plan, I’m always better the second time around,” concluded Alvarado.
*Little known Terrence Crawford does a number on Breidis Prescott*
In the nights co-feature, highly ranked amateur and 2008 Olympic Team alternate Terrence Crawford (20-0, 15 KO’s) of Omaha, Nebraska after close to an even opening round against hard hitting battle-tested Colombian Breidis Prescott (26-5, 20 KO’s) would switch to southpaw.
As a result, Crawford would from that point forward come up with a dominant performance, ala Pernell Whitaker, to after ten complete rounds register a unanimous decision victory by scores of 100-90, 99-91, and 97-93.
This despite the fact that the little known Omaha fighter would be stepping up in weight and class for the first time, not to mention he had taken the fight on two weeks notice.
All told, Crawford with impeccable timing, a good jab, a sneaky left lead, and elusive upper body and lateral movement would neutralize in every way the dangerous Colombian who’s power packed punches would harmlessly fall by the wayside.
No less than a very poised and impressive performance by Crawford who emerges as a player in the lightweight, and or perhaps junior welterweight division in a coming out bout of sorts.
