By Stephen ‘Darkness’ Johnson

Less than two weeks away from part 3 of the trilogy, Alvarado/Rios III, today in Denver, Colorado, Mike ‘303’ Alvarado (34-3, 23 KO’s) and Brandon ‘Bam Bam’ Rios (32-3-1, 23 KO’s) of Oxnard, California, were part of a media day where the Denver press converged on Delgado‘s Boxing & Martial Arts Gym to see how these two warriors are feeling.

The fight will be held on Saturday night, January 24 at the 1st BANK CENTER in Broomfield, Colorado, the vacant WBO International welterweight title on the line in the scheduled for 12 rounds main event. It will be televised by HBO.

The controversy surrounding Alvarado’s recent brush with the law (hiding a friend’s handgun in the glove compartment of a car Alvarado was a passenger in after a traffic stop for expired tags) had questions asked of both Rios and Alvarado with Rios being his usual candid self asking;

“They got him for possession of a weapon, who doesn’t have a gun in their car?”

That comment drew an uneasy gasp from the Denver media present with Channel 4 Sports’ Vic Lombardi boldly asked Rios “Do you have a gun on in your car”? Rios responded “No, not with me”… Lombardi later asked Rios’ trainer, Robert Garcia, “You have a gun”? Garcia never hesitating, “If you’re from Oxnard, you have to”.

The case is pending and the fight will go on as expected, the legalities to be settled at a later date.

Those exchanges set aside, Brandon Rios went on to say he’s been in Greeley, Colorado, for the last 30 days training and relaxing at the home of Arturo Corral (Empire Productions) with Rios expressing gratitude for Corral and his family opening their home to him and his training crew.

Rios was asked to assess his toughest fights, him saying “Manny Pacquiao is number one. Fighting him was like fighting 3 Pacquiaos’, it was like fighting an octopus. Alvarado, definitely number two”.

How will he deal with a loss, should that happen? Rios said if he loses he will consider retirement but he has not made that a plan. Trainer Garcia said he will honor whatever choices Rios makes “I don’t want to see Brandon get hurt at this stage of his career. Whatever happens we will make any decisions based on what Brandon feels but we plan on 2-3 more fights”

Garcia went out of his way to mention Rios “doesn’t make things up, stories of being homeless like some fighters are doing just to get publicity”, an obvious shot at Victor Ortiz who is an arch enemy.

Mike Alvarado was uninterested in any legal questions, him instead focusing on his position of looking to make this the best fight of the trilogy.

“Brandon and me have no animosity outside of the ring towards one another but once we enter the ring, we give it our all. We both plan on giving the fans what they want and deserve. Training camp has gone well and we’re expecting to get the win on the 24th”.

Alvarado manager, Henry Delgado, said “These two guys never fail to provide fight fans with anything less that great fight action, January 24th no different. There’s no clear favorite so the winner will be the fighter who is best prepared and wants it the most”.

Neither Brandon ‘Bam Bam’ Rios nor Mike ‘303’ Alvarado went as far as predicting a KO win on the 24th but it’s more than apparent this fight won’t go the distance, these two prepared to go to war with only one man left standing.

Promoted by Top Rank (Bob Arum) in conjunction with TECATE, the fight will be televised LIVE on HBO beginning at 7:45PM MST.