By Edward Chaykovsky
Former champion Brandon Rios (33-2-1, 24KOs) is feeling more motivated than ever after destroying Mike Alvarado within three rounds of their trilogy fight on January 24th. Prior to that, Rios picked up a ninth round disqualification victory over Diego Chaves in August.
When Rios received the biggest opportunity of his career, a November 2013 fight with Manny Pacquiao, he was dominated over twelve rounds. He blames his performance on being too overconfident, as Pacquiao was coming off back to back defeats including a vicious knockout at the hands of Juan Manuel Marquez.
If the Pacquiao fight were to happen again, he expects a much different outcome to the match.
"If I got the opportunity again, of course it would be a way different situation because I was confident in the Pacquiao fight but I think I got too cocky confident. I wasn’t really me, I thought I was unstoppable, I thought I was somebody else," Rios told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
"I just got too cocky and I forgot where I came from, I forgot the drive that got me to that point and I was just thinking that nobody could hurt me and nobody could touch me. Nobody hasn’t really hurt me yet but I just felt that I got too cocky, to tell you the truth. I just got too comfortable and cocky."
