By Chris Robinson
With no official word yet on Manny Pacquiao's next opponent, WBO welterweight champ Tim Bradley seems to be hanging on to the hope that he may end up landing a rematch with the Filipino icon in the coming months.
On June 9th, inside of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, Bradley would escape with a highly-unpopular split-decision over Pacquiao despite not seeming to dictate the fight the way he had originally planned.
Having taken in the action of Pacquiao-Bradley with a close eye, former lightweight championBrandon Rios saw Manny winning and didn't have a sound explanation for the judges' cards.
"I thought Pacquiao won, but honestly, it was just one of those fights where people don't really know about," Rios told me recently. "It happens, I guess. I don't know."
Rios is no stranger to controversy, having been declared the split-decision victor over awkward Cuban Richard Abril on April 14th at the Mandalay Bay in a fight that saw him suffer severe public backlash afterwards.
With such criticism still in the back of his mind, Rios stopped entertaining any thoughts about the Pacquiao-Bradley drama.
"Since I said 'It happens', people are going to talk sh*t about me now about the Abril fight," Rios continued. "I already know how it is. I can't really say anything about, because I'll get negativity back from my last performance. I'll leave it as it is."
For Rios, other high-profile matches in the sport seem to be of little interest, as he is presently locked in for an October 13th clash of his own against the very dangerous Mike Alvarado.
"I honestly haven't been following anything about the boxing industry right now, because I'm just really focused on this fight," Rios would explain. "This is the first time I've been really focused on a fight since I won with [Miguel] Acosta. I'm just focusing on Mike Alvarado, proving a point, and I want to show the world what I can do."
Rios was able to offer up his insight in a potential Pacquiao-Bradley rematch, pointing towards Tim's success in the later rounds of the first fight as reason enough to believe he might change his tactics up the second time around.
"I think Bradley might box him a little more, run around a little more," Rios said. "Because, when the did that in the first fight, he was making Pacquiao frustrated. Maybe he'll go back over the tape and do that. I honestly don't really know. Like I said, best luck to both guys."
