Brandon Rios Through With The Grind, Ready For a Fight

By Lyle Fitzsimmons

To some guys, the fight itself is the easy part.

The boxer struts confidently for cameras in his dressing room, then strolls to the ring amid an entourage before ultimately getting the chance to lay his hands on an opponent and pursue a victory.

What they don’t know quite so well, though, is what happens before fight night.

In case you’d been wondering, it’s not all sweaty workouts and behind-the-curtain drama that becomes fodder for weeks-long cable documentary series. Instead, as Brandon Rios will be the first to testify, it’s just as much about simply grinding through the tedium of promotional publicity needs.

He’s a veteran of 35 fights in just more than a decade as a pro, and the finish line for another extended build-up process will arrive Saturday night in Denver -- where he’ll face rival Mike Alvarado for a third time in a 12-round welterweight bout atop an HBO broadcast that’s set for 9:45 p.m.

And though the career path he’s followed – particularly with the style he’s chosen – is especially brutal to the unaccustomed eye, the engaging 28-year-old would still choose a hard punch in the mouth over yet another series of the same tired interview questions.

“There are quite a few people out there that’ll ask things that just make you sit there and shake your head,” he said, during a recent one-on-one chat. “Throughout the day, we’ll hear the same questions over and over and over, so you just put a repeat button on yourself. I feel like just recording myself and just putting it on the phone so it can play itself out.

“Do I like to do it? Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. But I’ve got to do it. It’s part of the job.”

Rios conceded to evolving over the years as it relates to the media’s impact.

He said he used to go online and seek out any stories written and opinions rendered about him, but now claims to “pay no attention” to anything beyond simply surviving the interview process.

“I used to read it and I’d be like, ‘Oh, my God, these f***ing guys are idiots,’” he said. “One day they’re telling me this thing or that thing – ‘You’re one of the best fighters, I love you’ – and then the next day you go on the computer and they’re saying something different. That’s when it’s like, ‘Oh, my f***ing God, are you serious?’ So I just stopped reading the comments.

“I stopped reading everything that gets put up now. It used to get under my skin, but now I’m like, ‘Whatever.’ It doesn’t do that to me anymore.”

When it comes to assessing where he now stands on the world stage, Rios goes defiant again.

He was universally labeled one of the sport’s rising stars in 2012, when he completed a brief run as the WBA lightweight champion before moving up to stop a 140-pound Alvarado in Round 7 of what Sports Illustrated, among others, consider that year’s best single fight.

A 2013 rematch with Alvarado yielded a close but unanimous decision that was his first career loss, and the skid stretched to two fights when he was soundly beaten by a welterweight Manny Pacquiao en route to another 12-round scorecard defeat in a pay-per-view main event from Macao, China.

Rios tested positive for a banned stimulant after the Pacquiao loss and was inactive for more than eight months before returning to defeat Diego Chaves by ninth-round disqualification in a foul-filled matchup in August, a bout he was losing on two of three official scorecards when it ended.

Entering the third bout with Alvarado, he’s ranked fourth in the world at 147 pounds by the WBO, 10th by the WBC and 14th by the IBO. Alvarado, who’s lost two bouts since last meeting Rios, is unranked.

“I’m ready to get back to the top. I’m not done yet,” Rios said. “I’m young in the sport and I’ve still got a lot more gas in my tank. People think I’m already shot and I’m already done, but that’s not true. That’s not true at all. Like Mr. Roy Jones used to say, ‘Y’all must’ve forgot.’”

Jones released a rap song with that title in 2001, including references to several high-profile wins and claiming that critics were forgetting his standing as the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter.

Rios is channeling the sentiment, if not the specifics.

“Let them say what they want to say, because at the end of the day that’s all they’re going to do anyway,” he said. “If I say I like blue, they’re going to say blue is an ugly color. It’s not that I have to win. I do, but I want to win. I’m going to do what I do best. I want another big shot at another big person.”

His own trainer, meanwhile, suggested a difficult weekend could mean a difficult conversation.

“For us, it's pretty much do or die,” Robert Garcia told The Ring’s Dominic Verdin. “Brandon needs to come and perform. If he doesn't win it might be, it could be his last fight. Depending on the outcome, how much punishment they take, I might even advise him to retire.”

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This week's title-fight schedule:

No title fights scheduled.

Last week's picks: 1-1 (WIN: Santa Cruz; LOSE: Stiverne)
2015 picks record: 1-1 (50.0 percent)
Overall picks record: 640-224 (74.0 percent)

NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.

Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.