This Saturday, January 24th at the 1st Bank Center in Bloomfield, Colorado welterweights Brandon Rios and Mikey Alvarado meet for the third time. The two have met twice before, with a October 13th, 2012 meeting going to Rios via TKO , while Alvarado won the March 2013 re-match via unanimous decision. The line for the trilogy closing third fight sees Rios favored at (-150), with Alvarado returning (+130). The over/under for the twelve round bout is set at 10 1/2, with the over paying (-170) and the under at (+150). Rios won he first meeting, getting the TKO stoppage in the seventh round of a scheduled ten, The match was dead even on two of the three judges cards to that point. The fight was a title eliminator for the WBO’s world title, and the close nature of the bout saw the two re-match in las Vegas with the interim WBO Super Lightweight title on the line. Rios walked into that fight as a favorite at roughly (-350), and once again the two men engaged in a toe to toe war. This time, the fight went the full ten rounds, and the judges gave the slightest of edges to Alvarado (115-113, 115-113, 114-113) despite his face being cut up and swollen. Alvarado finds himself at home in Colorado, and he needs a win to snap a two fight winning streak. After winning the WBO World title, he lost the title in his next outing against Ruslan Provodnikov in a match that saw him floored for the first time in his career. After that he fought Juan Manuel Marquez a full twelve rounds, but lost the unanimous decision. For Rios, he followed the loss to Alvarado with a loss to Manny Pacquiao. After that, Rios bounced back with a win over Argentina’s Diego Gabriel Chavez, but Rios looked flat in that fight. Alvarado has fought in Colorado many times throughout his career, and he is hoping that the altitude iwill sap Rios strength in the later rounds. Rios has fought in Colorado before, and he is an experienced professional who has fought all over the world, but the output between the two men during the first two fights will be tested here. Rios got pounded for twelve rounds by Pacquiao, and an ugly fight with an outsized Chaves didn’t impress. Because of the history between the two, Rios will come in motivated, and Rios gets himself up with emotions like that. Both men need a win badly, as both are (1-2) in their last three fights. The shine has come off both men’s stars enough that the re-match here was basically the only thing that made sense for Top Rank to do. Promoter TOP RANK is offering a full card with eight fights. The other fight carrying a line at the books features Super Middleweights Gilbert Ramirez Sanchez taking on Maxim Vlasov. Right now, the undefeated Sanchez is a (-750) favorite over Vlasov, who returns (+525). There is no over/under set for this fight. The two main card fights will air on HBO in the United States.
