By Dennis "dSource" Guillermo
Brandon "Bam Bam" Rios (31-1-1, 23 KOs) has had many big and exciting fights since turning pro in 2004, but none of them will be bigger and more exciting than his next one.
On November 23, the 27-year-old slugger from Oxnard, California will face 8-division world champion Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KOs) in a clash of boxing's two most violent forces in what is pegged to be an all-out war for as long as it lasts. The fact that both men are coming off losses and raring to get back on the winning column only adds to the already high stakes of this prizefight.
Rios, as expected, is coming into his matchup against the Filipino boxing icon as the underdog. Some have even gone as far as writing him off as nothing but the sacrificial lamb in Pacquiao's comeback tour. But Rios, it's nothing new.
"It's nothing new to me; the critics saying 'Brandon is no good, Brandon's just a one-dimiensional fighter, he just comes to fight, no head movement, he gets punched a lot, bla bla bla...' its nothing new to me," Rios told me recently in an exclusive phone interview.
"I'm just going to go out there and shock the world and show the world that when I fight the best and when I have the best in front of me, it brings out the best in me. I'll be ready 100 percent and I'm just going to shut everybody up again," Rios added.
And in doing so, Rios plans to bring the same goods that has gotten him to this point in his career. As other fighters have found success in boxing and forcing Pacquiao to chase them inside the ring, Rios plans to go toe-to-toe like he has against all of his previous opponents and expects to be successful.
"I going to do what I always do and fight the way I fight like I always do. I always come to fight. I always come to bring it," Rios said. "They're going to see the Bam-Bam that always comes forward to fight. I don't hug, I don't dance, I don't f%$k around. I come to fight and I come to get the job done," Rios echoed in a separate interview with dSourceBoxing.com correspondent Nico Akia.
Another side story to this Pacquiao-Rios clash is some bad blood between both camps stemming from Pacquiao's 2010 fight with Antonio Margarito. During the lead-up to that bout, Rios mocked Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach and caught the ire of many boxing fans for his antics. Roach has been quoted saying that Pacquiao will avenge him, but for Rios, the incident is simply water under the bridge.
"It's behind me," Rios said. "I have no bad blood with Manny Pacquiao, but all those incidents and the videos that we did, I take responsibility for it, and if they are holding a grudge against it, let them," he added. Rios has apologized for his part in those videos in the past and maintains that this is his fight with Pacquiao now and is focused on nothing else but their November clash.
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