Newly crowned world champion Brandon Rios with his trainer Robert Garcia.

Brandon Rios shines on the big stage registering a TKO victory over Miguel Acosta to win the WBA lightweight title on Saturday night at the Palms Casino Hotel. Rios (27-0-1, 20 KOs) has won nine straight since fighting to a draw against Manuel Perez in October 2008. Acosta (28-4-2) lost for the first time in 20 fights.

I always like to watch fights twice. Once obviously with out knowing the outcome, and then the second time to see if there were signs of the pending outcome. This was one of the rare occasions that I didn’t really see anything new the 2nd time around. I picked Acosta to win the fight for all the reasons he won the first 4 rounds. And I am not sure his corner or he could have done much differently to be honest. When you hit a man as hard as you can repeatedly and he keeps coming, where do you adjust.

I know Rios is a pit bull in the ring, but I had no idea he could eat Acosta’s right hand and never slow down. Outside of a couple exchanges in the 3rd round, Rios never backed up. That was physically impressive, but more mentally demoralizing for Acosta. What do you do differently when all your punches are landing and your opponent is getting stronger? You eventually cave in yourself.

I thought it was very telling that Rios first of 3 knockdowns of Acosta was in the 6th round and was from a jab punch. That shows you the pressure Rios had

Acosta finally relented to Rios pressure as he crumbled in his own corner.

applied, the sacrifice he made of taking punishment in order for a long-term plan was working. That was probably the 15th hardest punch he landed that round, yet it was enough to put Acosta on the mat, and was the beginning of the champions end. There was another knockdown in the 8th, but in the 10th round is when Rios put his foot on the gas.

They are referred to as the championship rounds for a reason. While Acosta fights magnificently off of the ropes, usually that is by his choice. In the 10th round he was backed into a corner, as Rios stalked him down. This time however he couldn’t avoid the inevitable, as Rios landed a 4-piece combination that ended the fight.

What’s next?
Rios has had his issues outside of the ring, but that is the par for the course with many boxers, lets be honest.  He has just became a champion in an extrememly loaded division that his promoter Top Rank has several talented fighters under their banner.  It is safe to say his future is very bright.  I would love to see him fight the Humberto Soto/ Urbano Antillon winner, or the winner of the Guerro Katsidis fight.  Although they fight for Golden Boy and we know how that goes.  As for Acosta, after some  much deserved time off to recover (he left the stadium on a stretcher) he too is right in the thick of everything at 135 pounds.  He did nothing to discredit himself and down the line should get a rematch with Rios, in what was a great fight.

Brandon Rios a superstar? I don’t know. In fact I don’t even know what is a superstar these days. Is it based off endorsement deals or twitter followers? It seems the words great, and superstar are thrown around far to often these days. Those are titles you have to earn over consistent greatness. But I do know this. Brandon Rios has a chin of granite, very good power in both hands, solid speed and average defense. That is a formula for a very entertaining fighter that I cannot wait to watch again. (Although I will remember to mute my television before he lets out his now patented howl, that sounds more like a wild bore getting gutted, than a celebration.) And truth be told that’s all I really want. All of the accolades will or won’t eventually play it self out.

Sidebar:
Boxing fans, Boxing Heads, Boxing bloggers, fight freaks. Whatever name you designate for yourself can we all please stop overreacting to every single thing that happens in boxing. “good for boxing.” “Bad for boxing.” I swear I read or hear that daily. Yes the sport of boxing has plenty of issues, we all know that. And I to have been guilty of harping on them. But the sport has been around for over two centuries. One fight is not going to save or kill the sport. The NFL and NBA are about to have work stoppages. And 75% of the teams in Major League Baseball have absolutely no chance of winning a world series. And college football grows in popularity every year despite being filled with some of the most hypocritical and dishonest labor practices in all of sports. Invite friends over, have a Tecate, and enjoy the action. But don’t worry about comments or opinions of people that never follow the sport in the first place.

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