By Bill "Two Scoops" Emes

Trainer Robert Garcia admits that he, and super lightweight contender Brandon Rios (31-0-1, 23KOs), preferred to do something other than a direct rematch with Mike Alvarado (33-1, 23KOs).

Rios stopped Alvarado in the seventh round of a "Fight of The Year" candidate last October. Rios was then promised an April 20th clash with Manny Pacquiao. But not everything went as expected when two months later Pacquiao was knocked out in the sixth round by Marquez.

With Pacquiao staying away from the ring until a fifth fight with Marquez in September, Rios is now left out in the cold - and forced to enter a direct rematch with Alvarado - targeted for an HBO televised date of March 30th in Las Vegas.

"[Rios' manager] Cameron Dunkin is the one who will give us final notice. It's still not officially done, but if it happens than we're going to do it again. We preferred to do other stuff, there 's bigger names and bigger fights, but if there is no way out then we're going to have to do it. Brandon knows that this is how boxing is. We had plans, that Pacquiao was our next opponent, but this is how boxing is - it's full of surprises and there is nothing that we can do," Garcia told BoxingScene.com.

"We know that Marquez wants a fifth fight with Pacquiao and I don't blame him. We would like a shot at Marquez - but he's smart, he's a businessman and now he's thinking business. And a fifth fight with Pacquiao is going to get him so much money, and he's 39, so I don't blame him."