Brandon Rios lost for the first time in his career during his last bout, dropping a close unanimous decision to Mike Alvarado. This was a rematch of an excellent fight which ended with Alvarado going down by knockout, but he came back to win the second bout.
Meanwhile, Manny Pacquiao has suffered consecutive losses to Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez, the latter of which came via knockout. This upcoming fight will give the former champ a chance to show that he is not quite finished.
Still, the key to boxing—as it is in life—is to learn from your mistakes. If each fighter wants to be successful in this bout, that is exactly what they must do.
Brandon Rios
Unlike Pacquiao, Rios had never suffered a loss before in his professional career, which makes recovering from it a little different. Therefore, the mental aspect of bringing yourself back up is a challenge in itself.
It is important not to lose confidence in your ability when you enter the ring, otherwise you will be destroyed.
Of course, too much confidence can also lead to issues, as Rios saw against Alvarado. According to World Boxing News, Rios recently explained that his training mentality is what limited him last time:
When I trained for Alvarado the first time on October 13, 2012, I was confident and I was ready 100% for the fight. When I trained for Alvarado second time, I would say I was overconfident because I knew I had hurt him the first fight I had already beat him. Therefore, I believed I could do it again. That's where I messed up because I didn't really think he was going to change his game.
This fight, Pacquiao vs. Rios, it's going to be different. I am going to train for everything. I am going to train for everything Manny Pacquiao is going to bring and some.
He goes on to explain that he can never underestimate opponents again. This should be easy to avoid against an elite fighter like Pacquiao.
Beyond that, Rios will simply have to do a better job of defending himself in the future. While his aggressive mentality has helped him win 31 career fights, he also has to learn how to simply put up his gloves and block.
In his recent loss to Alvarado, he simply took too many hard punches that caused plenty of damage. While he has a strong chin, the judges still score favorably to those that can land hits to the face.
If he can do a better job of simply defending himself while he is not swinging, he will have a decent chance to pull off the upset.
Manny Pacquiao
The common mindset is that the last two losses show that Pacquiao has fallen far from being one of the top fighters in the world. However, the truth is the defeats were not that bad.
His loss to Bradley was, and still is, heavily debated, as many blamed the poor judging, including Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix:
After that, he was doing well against Marquez and was likely leading on scorecards before getting knocked out. Few remember that Pacquiao actually knocked down his opponent earlier in the bout.
If not for one huge punch, the veteran might have held on for a win and we would not be talking about his decline.
Of course, this is exactly where the Pac-Man has to focus in his next match. He always has to be aware of the possibility of a counterpunch that can be the final blow in a fight.
Primarily, this could lead to less aggressiveness from the Filipino boxer. Although he has never been one to bounce around the ring, he might have to start being more patient with his hits so he does not leave himself too exposed.
Additionally, Pacquiao has to work on remaining focused at all times. This means that he cannot be satisfied with a lead and relax like someone might be able to in football or basketball. A boxing match can be ended at any time.
This means that he cannot let his guard down for a second. He has to be ready to fight and ready for a big swing from Rios. Otherwise, he could suffer a third loss in a row that might be enough to end his career.
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