By Chris Robinson
There was no one who had a more intimate view last night of the savagery that was Brandon Rios vs. Mike Alvarado.
The head trainer of Rios, who scored a thrilling seventh round stoppage over Alvarado inside of the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, Robert Garcia had to endure a grueling six rounds of action that may have caused others to panic or have doubt given the violent action taking place.
But for Garcia, who has worked with Rios since his amateur days, there was no real concern, however, as he simply knew that the kind of sheer mayhem taking place was exactly what his fighter lived for.
Following the bout, I caught up with the 2011 Trainer of the Year to get his take on the Rios-Alvarado scrap while also touching on reports that Top Rank CEO Bob Arum had hinted at the winner of last night’s duel possibly facing off with the winner of the December 8th fourth encounter between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez.
This is what Garcia had to share with myself and my colleague Ryan Burton of BoxingScene.com…
What was expected...
“It was what Brandon expected. What we knew we were going to get from Mike Alvarado. Tough fight, but like I told Brandon the minute before he knocked him out, ‘Go deep, because we’ve got to pull it out’ and he did exactly what we told him.”
The perfect fight for Brandon…
“I talk to my fighters and of course I’ve got to be concerned. I love my fighters, I talk to them, and the minute they respond the way Brandon does when I ask them ‘How are you doing? Do you feel his punch? Is he hurting you?’, right when he says ‘F*ck no, I don’t feel his punch’, then I’m ok with that. The fight that we did was the perfect fight and Brandon, more than anybody else, deserves credit now.”
No doubt about Rios at 140…
“Come on, everybody knows that Alvarado was one of the strongest fighters at 140 and look at what Brandon did to him. There’s no doubt that Brandon could fight anybody at 140. He’s much better at this weight. He’s much stronger. For being able to do something like that to Alvarado, who is a stronger, bigger guy, and still come out and do what he did, you ‘ve got to have a tremendous punch. I think at 140, he’s even stronger than 135.”
Going for the kill after the sixth round…
“Like I said, I know how to talk to my fighters and every fighter is different. Nonito is different than Brandon. Maidana is different. You’ve got to know how they think and everything and I know how Brandon thinks. I know Brandon better than anybody else, so I know how to talk to him. I told him ‘The rounds are getting hard, this guy is coming strong, you’ve got to go deep and suck it up and go for the kill’ and that’s exactly what I told him.”
Little by little…
“We were breaking [Alvarado] down little by little. I didn’t think it was over, because Alvarado is still strong and he has a minute break and he has a great corner. Definitely, I’m not obviously sure that it was over, but we knew that little by little, we were breaking him down. We still had a few more rounds to go. Brandon did what he did. It could have been two or three more rounds before he could have done that.”
Expressing interest in a Rios match with Manny Pacquiao…
“It’s something that of course interests us. Right now, the way he performed, there’s no doubt that fight will sell, there’s no doubt that people will know Brandon has a chance. But that’s why Brandon has Cameron Dunkin. Cameron Dunkin is the best manager in this business and Cameron Dunkin will decide what’s next for Brandon. Whatever he comes and offers, Brandon never says no. It could be Brandon against Alvarado again, it could be Brandon against Joe Blow and Brandon would take it. It could be against Pacquiao; Brandon’s ready for whoever.”
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