By Osman Rodriguez
Former champion Brandon Rios (30-0-1, 22KOs) lashed out at his critics, who recently took aim at the boxer for not being able to make the lightweight limit for the second consecutive fight. This past Friday, Rios looked like a skinny ghost as he weighed in at 137-pounds, two pounds over the lightweight limit. The following day at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Rios struggled to win a controversial twelve round split decision over WBA interim-champion Richard Abril.
After the fight was over, a lot of critics questioned Rios' ethics for going through with another fight at 135 - when he struggled heavily to make thelightweight limit for his fight against John Murray in December 2011.
"I wanted my title back. It's not like I did not try. I did f***ing try. There are all these critics out there talking sh*t about me, saying stuff about me - more than half of these motherf***ers are fat and they don't even [lose weight] for their health. I was doing it to get back my title. I did try, it's not like I didn't try and that's why I'm going to 140," Rios said.
"Once I got to 137, I couldn't get it to go down. I did everything I had to. I tried, I trained, I sweat my f***ing ass off, I pissed, I sh*t...I did everything that I had to do and it wouldn't come down. You saw me at the scale. I was dead, I was skinny. It's just something where I'm fooling myself [that I can make 135]. I'm making myself look like a dumbass in front of ya'll folks. It's my fault that I tried to make 135 and I don't blame anyone but myself."