By Ben Jacobs
As previously reported by BoxingScene, Diego Cháves is struggling to get a Visa in time to travel to Las Vegas for his fight with Brandon Ríos. However, assuming the fight goes ahead, the Argentine is confident of victory, and he sounded so in a phone interview with BoxingScene a couple of days before the Visa issue was revealed.
“I’m very happy to have this opportunity against a tough rival like Brandon Ríos, so I’m very focused on getting a big win for Argentina,” he said.
“We know he’s had various hard fights against Mike Alvarado and Manny Pacquiao, so we know he’s used to suffering, and we also have lots of qualities to make him suffer, we’ve got the tools to beat him and stop him.”
Cháves is very familiar with Ríos due to the amount of high profile fights the Mexican-American has been involved in. Nevertheless, ‘La Joya’ has also studied him during a training camp in which Luis Carlos Abregú was a sparring partner in the early phase of preparation a few months ago.
“I’m watched videos of him [Ríos] and discussed him with my team, he’s a strong boxer who always goes forward so we have to have plan A and plan B to win.
“There is so much to gain here, it’s an important fight I have to win to be able to continue on to a world title.
“He carries a hard punch but we’re going to be moving and hitting him hard to stop him and I believe I can stop his attack. We’ve obviously worked to go hard for the 10 rounds.”
Ríos has been inactive since the Pacquiao loss but Diego does not believe that will be relevant come fight night. Nor does he show any concern for Ríos’ failed drug test following his bout against the Filipino star.
“I know he failed a doping test after the Pacquiao fight but we’re very relaxed with our game plan and it doesn’t matter what happened in the past. We trust in the anti-doping tests.”
Cháves will also be looking to recoup some pride for his country following high profile losses suffered by Sergio Martínez and Marcos Maidana in recent months.
“Obviously I want to get back some pride, I’m going in with a winner’s mentality.
“As for the rematch, I think Mayweather has adaped to Maidana and that will make it a lot harder for Chino. Mayweather knows about Maidana’s power so he’ll try to move more. But I think it will still be an excellent fight.”
