By Carlos Boogs
Earlier today, Brandon Rios' trainer, Robert Garcia, pulled the trigger too quickly when he announced his fighter was going to challenge WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley on November 7th at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. He deleted his tweet within a half hour after posting.
The issue for most of the day, was that Rios had agreed to the fight and Top Rank (who promote both fighters) was still trying to reach a deal with Bradley.
A deal has now been reached between Monica Bradley (wife and manager of Tim) and Top Rank President Todd duBoef.
"We've been working on this for quite a while, and we're glad to have it done," duBoef told The Las Vegas Review Journal "This is fight both Tim and Brandon wanted, and I'm pleased we were able to bring it to Las Vegas."
"We think we have a terrific fight. These guys are perfect for each other. They are action fighters who like to come forward, and it's probably the best non-pay-per-view fight out there."
This will be the second HBO appearance of the year for both fighters.
Bradley (32-1-1, 12KOs) won the WBO interim title in June with a twelve round unanimous decision over Jessie Vargas in Carson. He became the full champion a week later when Floyd Mayweather Jr. vacated the title. Rios (33-2-1, 24 KOs) was in action January when he easily demolished Mike Alvarado in their trilogy bout.
Some items have yet to be sorted.
Who will train Bradley? Several days ago he parted ways with longtime trainer Joel Diaz. While's he's talking with several possible candidates to replace Diaz, nobody has been hired as of yet.
The WBO has yet to make a ruling regarding their approval of the fight. A few months ago their ordered the Bradley-Vargas winner to make their first defense against mandatory challenger Saddam Ali, but Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum claimed HBO was not interested in purchasing a fight between Bradley and Ali.