IMO he are witnessing the end of Rios's career right now

He can beat Garcia. The Peterson fight is interesting considering what he did to his Bro. Rios might be comfortable fighting Lamont's style, who's defense is a lot like his brothers. Bradly kills Rios. lamont is more dynamic than his brother and while they used to be the same size, lamont has grown into 140 and probably should be fighting at 147 soon. lamont would not be bullied by rios the way his brother was. and lamonts inside game is just as good if not better than rios and his outside game is def better. honestly, its a bad matchup for rios. i dont see how he wins.

I would love to know who ever thought Rios was going to be a great fighter? He's fun, sure, but he's just another Mayorga.

Rios is a come forward brawler with good inside fighting skills but I wouldn't say his career is over. He needs to dedicate himself more because he barely made 140lbs, he was 137 and looked like he was half dead. I don't think the kid is taking his career 100% seriously to be honest and I think the worst thing that could have happened was winning this BS decision. He should have lost and that might have woke him up because he is an exciting fighter with lots of heart and determination. the common misconception IMO is when someone is over the next phrase is "he barely made (insert next weight up here) let alone (current weight)" when in fact what Brandon said was true. If he had to make 140 then those last two lbs, the ones that forced him to dry out, is no longer in the equation because he has a different target to shoot for rather than drying himself completely out. On Monday at the presser he was fine and about 8lbs away, next time I saw him was Thursday and while he sweated it wasnt as much as you would think. By Friday he was fried dry.

who can he beat for a title currently at 140, the only fight i see being 50/50 is him and garcia. i guess his plan would be to wait for everyone to leave the division before making his move for a title. because theres no way in hell he beats peterson nor bradley. He can beat Garcia. The Peterson fight is interesting considering what he did to his Bro. Rios might be comfortable fighting Lamont's style, who's defense is a lot like his brothers. Bradly kills Rios.

he ran into a slick Puerto Rican

My goodness, talk about overreacting. He was a corpse facing a really bad style match up for him. Many will look bad against Abril. Top Rank needs to match him better, sure. But watch him find a way to outman Alvarado, or watch him go up to 140 and walk Marquez down....which is possible, and then everyones tune will change real quick. Marquez is great, but defensively he's NOTHING like Abril. Rios will be able to find Marquez much easier....that's still a toss up fight to me. Marquez would actually have a feast with Rios. Marquez would be able to counterpunch him to death.

You know the funny thing is just last week I remember posters talking about Rios being a skilled crafty inside fighter with a better defence and footwork than people thought if only I cared enough to remember who they are I would laugh at them. I would love for someone to bring that thread up again, god NSB is full of schmucks. As soon as a bit of a puncher comes along, or a come forward fighter, it is like the second coming of Jesus in this place. The Maidana hype was also ridiculous. I hate the fact that I had to listen to a-holes tell me that Rios was more skilful then Peterson on the inside.

He can no longer make 135.he has been exposed as 1 dimensional he can not adjust,the blueprint has been written,i doubt he ever gains another title or any big victory,his trainer thinks not getting hit=not trying to win a boxing match.this is a disaster OMG. check his wikipedia page it's true!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_R%C3%ADos Brandon Rios' professional career ended after he received a Godly gift in his bout with Richard Abril. Let us all bow our heads for Rios' professional career, July 23, 2004- April 14, 2012. RIP

He's training to make weight, and can't spend time doing anything to improve himself. Once he settles at a weight, they need to start to train his boxing skills. If he can't adapt himself and become a real pressure fighter and not just a plodder, then yea we've seen all of his tricks thus far. I use the term tricks loosely, because he is about as predictable as they come right now. He's not nearly the level of a Jose Luis Castillo, for example...who was able to be effective against TOP level master boxers. The Abril fight needs to be turned into something positive...a learning experience. Whether Rios is honest/intelligent enough with himself to use the whole experience as a lesson is another question. He can't make that weight, and he has to learn what to do against someone with the style of Abril because it's not going to get any easier from here on out. Not only is the competition and talent going to get better...there is now a blueprint on how to beat him.

But that's the thing homie, it did give Rios trouble hence the controversial decision. The only thing I see playing a bigger factor is Khan sitting down on his punches more than Abril and of course doubling up on his jab with the obvious advantage in hand speed. I like Rios, I really do and I am not going to go on this thread and write him off based on one bad performance as much of these so called boxing pundits do only to praise him again when he wins big. BUT, as the saying goes "Styles makes fights" and I think Amir's style (again though I'm not much of a fan) would give Brandon a lot of fits... I get what you're saying, but I think the biggest thing with Abril was his philly shell defense. Rios just didn't know how to get past that. Khan doesn't have a philly shell and he has a tendency to struggle with inside fighting. Just look at the Peterson and Maidana fights. I think a Khan-Rios fight would be a war. If his jab can keep Rios at bay then I agree that he does dominate Rios, but that's a big if...

Khan only landed like 10 more total punches than Peterson and Peterson landed more power punches at a 45% rate. Khan's defense sucks. He wasn't able to keep Peterson off him, he just ran. That's probably why he lost that fight. Khan running backwards and throwing a jab won't work through a 12 round fight. I'm not saying Rios can dominate Khan, but it'd be a close fight. I just don't see how Khan's style can give Rios more trouble than Abril did. But that's the thing homie, it did give Rios trouble hence the controversial decision. The only thing I see playing a bigger factor is Khan sitting down on his punches more than Abril and of course doubling up on his jab with the obvious advantage in hand speed. I like Rios, I really do and I am not going to go on this thread and write him off based on one bad performance as much of these so called boxing pundits do only to praise him again when he wins big. BUT, as the saying goes "Styles makes fights" and I think Amir's style (again though I'm not much of a fan) would give Brandon a lot of fits...

I am on the fence regarding Rios' career, where does it go from here? He hasn't taken a huge amount of punishment(especially the last fight against Abril) in his last two fights, but he has undoubtedly, taxed his body to attempt to make that 135 limit the last two fights. How much has that taken out of him? If really nothing, he can still be the calibur of fighter he was before. Which to me is a B class fighter. Maybe #11-20 p4p some day, which is a major accomplishment. For now I attribute most of his bad performance to his weight issues. Boxing fans definitely are peculiar, if you have a 0 loss record, most will say, you are protected or havn't proved yourself. But if you lose a fight then your career is over, or will start dropping. Maybe Rios' career will start going down, as he did have some quality wins on his resume, but aside from his promoter(just doing what a promoter is supposed to do) hyping him as a future star "this is the guy that can beat Manny"(or whatever Arum's exact quote was) how many felt that Rios would end up on the p4p list, especially toward the top 5? If Rios ends up having a "Ward/Gatti" type of career as some have mentioned in this thread, I think that will be a huge accomplishment for Rios. Ward and Gatti fought on TV more than 90% of professional fighters, fought in memorable and exciting fights, and remembered more than a lot of higher calibur, champion fighters of the same era.

Running backwards and yet still outlanding Peterson. Now add a jab to the mix where Amir seems to double up on effectively, I see Rios getting flustered and outclassed and this is coming from someone who isn't an Amir fan. I like Rios, but let's face it the dude is a 135 version of Margarito a face-first fighter exciting to the crowd but once he steps up to someone with decent hand speed, a good jab and movement it's the wrap for Brandon. Khan only landed like 10 more total punches than Peterson and Peterson landed more power punches at a 45% rate. Khan's defense sucks. He wasn't able to keep Peterson off him, he just ran. That's probably why he lost that fight. Khan running backwards and throwing a jab won't work through a 12 round fight. I'm not saying Rios can dominate Khan, but it'd be a close fight. I just don't see how Khan's style can give Rios more trouble than Abril did.

Rios is a come forward brawler with good inside fighting skills but I wouldn't say his career is over. He needs to dedicate himself more because he barely made 140lbs, he was 137 and looked like he was half dead. I don't think the kid is taking his career 100% seriously to be honest and I think the worst thing that could have happened was winning this BS decision. He should have lost and that might have woke him up because he is an exciting fighter with lots of heart and determination.

nah i don't think his career is over...rios was killing himself to try and make 135..so maybe he'll come back stronger when he starts fighting at 140 and 147.

Did you even see the Khan-Peterson? His idea of moving is running backwards. He doesn't have any lateral movement and his defense sucks. I think a Khan-Rios fight will be far more competitive than Rios-Abril was. Styles makes fights and I don't see Khan's style being tougher than Abril's style for Rios. Running backwards and yet still outlanding Peterson. Now add a jab to the mix where Amir seems to double up on effectively, I see Rios getting flustered and outclassed and this is coming from someone who isn't an Amir fan. I like Rios, but let's face it the dude is a 135 version of Margarito a face-first fighter exciting to the crowd but once he steps up to someone with decent hand speed, a good jab and movement it's the wrap for Brandon.

If anyone really paid any mind it was the Peterson fight where I think so many learned Rios problem with lateral movement and footwork not the Abril scrap. Though I think Abril learned a thing or two from the Peterson bout coupled that with the fact that that's Richard style of fighting anyway. 140 awaits Rios and if he ever steps up to Khan (though I'm not a fan but do respect him) Amir would only capitalize on what Abril/Peterson already displayed with Rios. Did you even see the Khan-Peterson? His idea of moving is running backwards. He doesn't have any lateral movement and his defense sucks. I think a Khan-Rios fight will be far more competitive than Rios-Abril was. Styles makes fights and I don't see Khan's style being tougher than Abril's style for Rios.

If anyone really paid any mind it was the Peterson fight where I think so many learned Rios problem with lateral movement and footwork not the Abril scrap. Though I think Abril learned a thing or two from the Peterson bout coupled that with the fact that that's Richard style of fighting anyway. 140 awaits Rios and if he ever steps up to Khan (though I'm not a fan but do respect him) Amir would only capitalize on what Abril/Peterson already displayed with Rios.

It would appear from this latest episode that Rios will have a hard time making even 140. As it is, the better fighters in the division will beat him. At 147, which Rios will almost certainly move up to soon, he'll get pasted against the top guys. In a sense Rios's career is on the downslide, because he won't be one of the top dogs anymore. He can possibly look forward to a Gatti-type career. I'm sure most of his fans won't mind that.

Funnay ass thread! So I guess his wins against Acosta, Peterson, Murray and Antillon were just flukes? And now that a Ugly ass fighter like Abril, who will make anyone look bad, beat him, rios career is over? Come on homie!!!! Rios is the truth, peope will change their tune after watching Rios wni a couple of fights. Lets wait till Rios actually makes weight, before we talking about him beating anyone. We have seen him beat guys(not including last Sat) his bigger then. Take a brawlers size advantage and you end up with a bum. Brawler -(minus) size advantage = Bum