With a decisive victory over Brandon "Bam Bam" Rios on Saturday evening in Macau, China, Manny Pacquiao's future and a potential mega bout with Floyd Mayweather have become hot topics of conversation.
But what does the loss mean for the career of Rios? It doesn't look good for the big-time prospects of the 27-year-old American.
Rios had a huge opportunity to cement his status as a rising star in the boxing world, but looked outclassed from the start against Pacquiao:
According to ESPN.com and CompuBox, Pacquiao landed 281 of his 790 punches thrown (36 percent) during the 12-round bout, while Rios landed just 138 of 502 (27 percent). Though Rios should be commended for the way he handled Pacquiao's signature flurry-filled style, Bam Bam simply couldn't keep up.
Dan Rafael of ESPN.com shared the lopsided judge scores, with 120-108 representing a 12-round shutout by decision.
Rios will be hard-pressed to ever get back to such a big stage. With his display on Saturday, Rios showed he's tough, but that he doesn't deserve a spot among the world's elite boxers.
Mayweather is in a class of his own as boxing's undisputed top dog who will command the biggest box office draws whenever he steps inside a ring. Behind Mayweather is another top tier of boxers including Pacquiao, Timothy Bradley and Amir Khan.
Rios had a chance to include his name in that company with a victory over Pacquiao, but his performance on Saturday doesn't warrant him such consideration. Even a close loss by decision would have helped his case, but Rios lost in such convincing fashion that his prospects for cashing in on another pay-per-view fight look dim.
Headlining a pay-per-view event, even as an underdog like he was against Pacquiao, isn't an opportunity that comes along often and Bam Bam wasn't able to capitalize on it. Not to mention Rios also lost his previous bout by unanimous decision to Mike Alvarado in March.
Boxing is rare in that one fight can make or break your career, and Rios could feel the downside of that reality in the next few years. That's not to say Rios' career is over by any means, as he is still in the middle of his prime at 27, but this was a big stage that he'll likely never reach again.
Read more Boxing news on BleacherReport.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment