Ronny Rios Hungry To Put on a Show at Home Depot

by Francisco Salazara

Unbeaten Ronny Rios notched a very important victory in his last fight on January 11th. Rios dominated former world title holder Rico Ramos over 10 rounds, slowly becoming more of a contender and less of a prospect.

The victory also put Rios on the cusp of being mentioned as one of the best young featherweights, possibly being in the mix of a big fight within a year.

Rios will face Leonilo Miranda this Saturday in a scheduled 10 round bout at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA . The bout will be televised live on Showtime Extreme, starting at 8PM ET/ 5PM PT.

Leonilo Miranda? Loser of his last three fights in a row. Piece of cake for Rios, right?
While a lot of fans and media may have that mentality, do not sell that idea to Rios. Despite the victory over Ramos, a loss to the hard-hitting Miranda on Saturday would be devastating at this stage of his career.

In fact, while fights with contenders are out there, he is not overlooking Miranda.
“He has two arms just like me and he has 30 knockouts in his 32 victories,” Rios told Boxingscene.com on Tuesday evening. “I’m not overlooking Miranda at all. This is a dangerous fight for me.”

One aspect Rios (20-0, 9 KOs) admitted helped him for his preparation for Ramos was the strength and condition he had in leading up to that fight. During training camp for the Miranda fight, Ramos focused more on boxing.

The performance he had against Ramos was one that kept the so-called critics quiet. This time around against Miranda, he hopes a dominant victory will lead to more lucrative opportunities.

“I want my performance on Saturday to speak for itself,” said Rios, who has sparred in the past against Miranda. “This training camp for Miranda was a lot harder than the one for Ramos. I was even sparring with junior welterweights for this fight.”

Rios has a lot of upside and has the influence of having respected manager Frank Espinoza in his corner. The young fighter has been tested modestly thus far in his career and will figure to draw harder and tougher assignments in the future.

Part of his success that he attributes to so far in his career is not to get caught up too much in the success he has accomplished inside the ring. He attempts to be as humble and down to earth, eager to be as hungry as he was earlier in his career.

“I want to be as hungry as possible when I retire. I want to buy a house for my Mom. I want to double my investments. I work hard in the gym, sometimes until 1AM. Achieving more success than what I have now drives me.”

Rios is in the right division. After fighting at 130 pounds, Rios has found a home as a featherweight. Even with fighters who are moving up in weight from 122 pounds, Rios is guaranteed intriguing match-ups in the immediate future.

While Rios could look at potential contenders or big money fights, he is not looking past Miranda. He has been in the boxing game to know doing that is setting himself up for disaster.

“After Saturday, I can look at other fighters in my division. I can’t overlook anyone. My main focus is Miranda. He’s tall and lanky, but my goal is to break him down.”
Francisco A. Salazar has covered boxing around Southern California and abroad since 2000. He also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper. He could be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on twitter at Salazar_soccer