Trilogy, The Lord of The Ring
Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios (33-2-1 24 KOs) dominated “Mile High” Mike Alvarado (34-4, 23 KOs) on Saturday night from the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield Colorado to win the WBO International Welterweight Title. Rios looked beter than he has in some time controling the fight from the opening bell stalking Alvarado and landing strong combinations to the body and head. Alvarado began the fight with a tight guard almost as if he didn’t know what to expect from the first punch. We got our anwser as he seemed stunned by the first shot he took. Round One to Rios in a landslide. In the second, Rios continued to attack and was only slowed by a low blow that made him take a knee momentarily. Alvarado was landing a shot here and there but mostly only in a defensive and desperate effort to keep Rios off of him. In between rounds two and three, you could hear Alvarado tell his corner that he was having trouble seeing.
In the third, Rios was landing hooks to the body and following them with uppercuts. The uppercut would be Rios’ weapon of choice as he dropped Alvarado with a right uppercut that was followed by a few glancing blows, but it was the uppercut that did the damage. As Alvarado got to his feet Rios continued his attack.In the corner between rounds, Alvarado was again complaining of vision problems. The ringside physician held up two fingers and asked Alvarado how many fingers he had up to which he replied “four”. The ringside physician told Jay Nady, “I showed him two fingers, he answered four, fights over”.
CompuBox numbers showed that Rios landed 120 punches out of 290 to Alvarado’s 20 out of 87. Said Rios after the fight to HBO’s Jim Lampley, “I had to come prepared because this could have been the end of my career, I have a lot of gas in my tank still and I didn’t want that”. Rios did look good and better than he has for a while. Some have questioned if it was due to a lethargic opponent, I’d say somewhere in between, not Rios at his best and definitely not the version we saw against Manny Pacquiao.
As for Alvarado, when you get arrested three weeks before your fight at 4 AM in the morning, your dedication can be questioned on many levels especially after the effort that was put forth. Said Alvarado, “It was all in the preparation, I wasn’t training like I should have been, this is what I get.” You think?
Mike is a winner, he just needs to convince himself, deal with those demons outside of the ring and show the world.
So, the trilogy that was prematurely placed on the same level as Gatti Ward, fizzled as only one combatant showed up. That fighter, now the winner of two of the three and both by stoppage, is The Lord Of The Ring.
Life Lessons
Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (31-0 24 KOs) defeated Maxim Vlasov (30-2 15 KOs) by unanimous decision with scores of, 96-94 X2, 97-93. It was a workman like performance for the young kid. Ramirez destroyed Vlasov’s body but was unable to land a significant punch to put Vlasov in any serious trouble. As stated in Standing-8 after Ramirez’s last fight, “If there was an area for critique, it would be in Ramirez’s tendency to fight “small” at times which has left him open for counter overhand rights which his opponents have been able to land from time to time. Although he has displayed a solid beard he would benefit by tightening up his defense a bit more.” Again, Ramirez couldn’t protect from the right had as Vlasov landed them repeatedly. This kid has the goods but he better guard against those right hands because as the competition gets stronger he may not be able to absorb the punches as easily.
There were a lot of close rounds in this fight but Vlasov slowed his activity in the middle of the fight, a product of the body shots no doubt, which allowed Ramirez to capture them. Vlasov did have a few strong rounds towards the end of the fight but it was a little too late. Ramirez is one of the rising stars in boxing but showed a bit of a porous defense not adjusting to being hit with repeated rights. His jab, usually a big weapon, was underutilized. The fight was there for Vlasov but he failed to sustain his attack. A tough test for the young undefeated Ramirez. He was pushed in this fight and while his string of four straight stoppages ended, what he learned here will be more valuable than a stoppage as he moves on in his career.
We Love The Commercials
It’s not a matter of if Pacquiao and Mayweather will fight it’s a matter of when. Pacquiao says he signed the contract, Mayweather says there’s still more work to do because of the money. Maybe they’re going to announce it during a Super Bowl commercial, wouldn’t that be something? I can see it now, something out of Wayne’s World, “Game On”. In any event this site has had their hotel room booked since last August in anticipation of the May 2 date.
Junk Yard Dogs
Picture a junk yard with two starving dogs, one named Cinnamon, one Mandingo. Now picture a steak being thrown in the middle of them, add a Wolfe and things may just get interesting. Coming May 2nd, or later if “The Fight” is made which will put the junkyard battle on hold for a moment.
Standing-8 