By Ryan Maquiñana
Fresh off his first-round stoppage of Noe Lopez Jr. on last night’s Amir Khan-Zab Judah show, super featherweight prospect Ronny Rios (15-0, 7 KOs) will return Sept. 17 on the undercard of another high-profile fight, according to manager Frank Espinoza.
This time, the Santa Ana native will appear at Staples Center in Los Angeles before the main event between WBC light middleweight titlist Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Alfonso Gomez.
“Ronny really grew with this fight, as short as it was,” Espinoza said. “He’s looking really strong, and this is a guy (Lopez) who went all the distance with Gary Russell, so we’re really happy with him. We’d like to see him in there again soon and for him to keep getting better.”
Espinoza also shared that joining Rios on the card in a separate bout will be junior welterweight Antonio “Simple Man” Orozco of San Diego, who has run his record up to 11-0 with eight knockouts. Orozco recently knocked out Josh Beeman in three rounds last July.
“Orozco’s got all the tools," beamed Espinoza. "He’s not only a big puncher up top, but on the bottom with body punches. Sometimes that opens him up, but it makes him that much more of a favorite with the fans since he takes that element of risk."
The Southern California-based manager didn’t rule out the possibility of a third member of his stable participating on Sept. 17.
“I’d like to see (light welterweight) Carlos Molina get more fights and Luis Ramos, too. Maybe it might be there for one of them to be on that card, too, but we’ll see,” Espinoza said.
The respective opponents for Rios and Orozco have yet to be determined.
Ryan Maquiñana is the boxing correspondent at Comcast SportsNet Bay Area and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com, contact him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rmaq28 or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.
