By Ian S Palmer
The Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada will be the site of the Saturday, November 7th title tilt between WBO Welterweight Champion Timothy Bradley and Brandon Rios. The two Californians have exciting styles and fans are expecting an action-packed fight this Saturday. Fans in Canada and the U.S. can catch the live 12-round action on HBO while those in Britain can tune in on BoxNation.
The 32-year-old champion Bradley of Palm Springs climbs into the ring with a fine record of 32-1-1 with 12 Kos while the 29-year-old Rios of Oxnard is 33-2-1 with 24 Kos to his name. Rios has a two-inch height advantage since he stands 5-feet-8 while Bradley is 5-foot-6. However, the champ has a slight one-inch reach edge at 69 to 68 inches. Bradley also has an edge in pro experience with 266 rounds under his belt since 2004 while Rios has fought 196 since 2004. When it comes to power, Bradley basically lacks it as his knockout ratio is 34 per cent and Rios’ stands at 67 per cent
Bradley’s quite durable and has a solid chin even though he’s been in trouble a few times against the likes of Jesse Vargas and Ruslan Provodnikov, whom he beat by close decisions. Both of those opponents had Bradley in deep trouble late in their fights and it could be argued that he was saved by the bell on both occasions. And in the Vargas fight he was saved by a bell which rang about eight seconds prematurely. That’s not Bradley’s fault though and he did just enough to pull out those controversial contests.
The champion has fine boxing skills, but up to now hasn’t had the power to record many stoppages. But his power shouldn’t be underrated and taken lightly by Rios. He’s a two-time world champion who’s also beaten the likes of Devon Alexander, Juan Manuel Marquez and Lamont Peterson. Of course, he also owns a win over Manny Pacquiao in a highly controversial split decision bout back in 2012. He failed to convince the judges in their rematch though and was outboxed by Pacquiao in their rematch two years later. His draw came against Diego Chaves of Argentina last December in another controversial decision as most observers felt Bradley did enough to win it. Bradley took the vacant WBO belt in June when he beat Vargas by unanimous decision.
Rios will give the champion a tough time since he’s relentless and just keeps coming forward. He possesses a solid chin and decent power, but his boxing skills aren’t at the same level as Bradley’s. His most-memorable bouts have been against Mike Alvarado and Pacquiao. He met Alvarado three times and beat him twice in a toe-to-toe trilogy. However, he was easily outboxed by Pacquiao in his other loss in 2013. Rios likes to brawl, but his skills on the inside shouldn’t be underrated. He struggles against elite boxers and it’ll be interesting to see if Bradley tries to use his superior skills or will decide to slug it out.
Prediction
Both men have been involved in a few brawls in their careers and it’s unclear how much it’s taken out of them. Rios will need to use his jab when moving in rather than simply moving forwards with both fists blazing. If he does get Bradley in trouble he needs to go all out to try and finish him off since it’s almost impossible to stop him. Bradley now has Teddy Atlas in his corner and it’ll also be interesting to see how this effects his performance. Rios has been out of the ring for 10 months and that could be a factor too. This is a tough one to pick, but if they both fight at their absolute best, we should see Bradley take a close decision.
