By Luis Sandoval
It was a tough 2013 for Bam Bam Brandon Rios as he suffered back to back losses for the first time in his career and lost his world title to boot. Rios is looking to bounce back in 2014 but he has a tough assignment in front of him as he will be facing hard hitting Diego Chaves on August 2nd at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas, NV.
Chaves is considered a dangerous fight for Rios and even more when you factor in Brandon will have been inactive for 8 months when he steps in the ring. When BoxingScene spoke to Rios at his training camp in Oxnard, CA, he was asked if this was the type of fight he wanted as his comeback fight.
“F*** no, I wanted a guy like Danny Garcia is fighting. I wanted somebody like that” said a smiling Rios. “But it happens I’m fighting this guy and f*** it, I’m a warrior. I’m a fighter. I don’t care who it is, I’m a fighter. If this is the guy I have to fight just to show that I’m back at the top again, f*** it, I gotta take it. It is what it is. I’m not really thinking about it like ‘oh, it’s a dangerous fight’ or anything. I’m thinking about just going in there, performing, doing my best and give the fans and the world a great show.”
Rios’ trainer Robert Garcia echoes the same sentiments as he would’ve preferred a lighter fight for his fighter but he still feels they will prevail against Chaves regardless.
“We got to be real man, we wanted something lighter to come back but I don’t know what it is. We had some names that we preferred that were actually good opponents but [HBO] still said no. I don’t know if it was really HBO, Top Rank, whoever it was- they said this is the guy or else there’s no HBO date for you guys. So we had to take it. But then we see other fights where opponents are not known and nobody knows who they are and they’re still approved by big TV networks. So I don’t understand what it is but it is what it is and we have to fight. Brandon is ready for this guy and is training hard and is very motivated,” said Garcia.
Chaves gave a good account of himself in a losing effort against Keith Thurman last year and showed there was substance behind his undefeated record which was entirely compiled in his home country of Argentina. Rios was impressed with how Chaves did against Thurman but he plans to resort back to his old ways that got him to the top in order to be victorious.
“Honestly Robert and I have been doing the studying but I don’t really like to watch tape as much. I saw when he fought Keith Thurman. He did a great job, he’s a great boxer puncher. I’m just going to go out there and do what I do best and fight the way I fight all the time. This time doing it a better way. Go back to the roots that got me where I was at that got me in this position and I want to go back and fight like that again,” said Rios.
Rios camp is already in full swing and he even trained on 4th of July proving there are really no days off. He believes beating a tough foe like Chaves will put him back in the mix and get him a fight with one of the top names in the division.
You can follow Luis Sandoval on Twitter @Truewest007
