Brandon Rios: Manny Pacquiao’s worst opponent ever?

Before anything else, I send my congratulations to Manny Pacquiao for having bounced back from two successive defeats and totally outclassing Brandon Rios in Macau.

While Manny’s first sortie atop the ring in nearly a year showed to the whole world that he still is among the elite, his opposite number was not, and that was a surprising disappointment. After all the words hurled by Rios and his camp, I really thought it would be an epic struggle that may trigger a new saga in both fighters’ careers. Instead, a rematch would be both a box office bust and a waste of a future Hall-of-Famer's time.

I had the unique opportunity to actually cover Rios in the early stages of his career for the now defunct television program “Fists of the Future” on Solar Sports back in 2007 with future international boxing commentator (and good buddy) Mike Ochosa. Rios went up against up-and-coming young Mexican fighter Humberto Tapia. Rios (seeing action in only his thirteenth professional bout) won the eight round contest via a unanimous decision and Ochosa and I billed him as a talented stylist who could make a name for himself in the spot one day.

Little did we know that he would be a Pacquiao statistic a little over six years later.

The next time I watched him box was during the undercard of the Pacquiao-Margarito tiff in 2010 when he registered a fifth round stoppage against Canadian patsy Omri Lowther. Rios raised some eyebrows with his power punches, but still went almost unnoticed. The next time Rios’ name began humming was when he scored a stunning knockout victory over erstwhile undefeated super lightweight Mike Alvarado in the supporting main event of the Nonito Donaire-Toshiaka Nishioka WBO super bantamweight clash last year.

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Alvarado promptly retaliated in their rematch last March, but the first triumph by Rios put him on the “big payday” map and Top Rank big boss Bob Arum saw it fit to capitalize on the newfound popularity of the Kansas native and make him the new Pacquiao hurdle.

It was built-up to be a war of attrition highlighted by the Alex Ariza-Freddie Roach altercation in the days leading up to the fight in Macau. For a while, even I got intrigued.

But after the first round of “We Fight As One”, I knew it was just all hype.

In fact, for the first time since Pacquiao went up against aging “Sugar” Shane Mosley in 2011, the “fighting congressman from Saranggani province in the Philippines” was never in any danger of losing the bout. I even think it was worse than when Manny fought Joshua Clottey in 2010—and I called that fight a “dance recital”.

Rios fought like a smaller, less talented version of Antonio Margarito.

He kept plowing forward and threw punches with his head down; totally missing the target in most instances and when he did connect to the Pacquiao’s head, there was no combination following. Then Manny completely began toying with him in the fourth round, turning him into a magnetic top with all his side-to-side movements and I started getting dizzy watching how Rios would react to all of Pacquiao’s speed tactics.

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In short, Rios could be the most boring opponent Pacquiao has had since Clottey and could be on the crest of a downward spiral after his debacle in the squaring circle against a bonafide icon of the sport.

People who witnessed the bout began questioning Pacquiao’s lack of power as Rios never hit the deck. What those people fail to see is that Pacquiao was going for the “sure win” to give him his confidence back, and he achieved his goal in two ways: firstly, Manny didn’t get seriously hurt (unlike against Juan Manuel Marquez) and secondly, he proved that he can still get the judges’ nod (unlike against Timothy Bradley). Manny fought to outclass and he passed with flying colors.

For Rios, I don’t know how he can get his second pay-per-view (PPV) deal after this abominable showing. Even Alvarado’s handlers may now begin thinking he’s just going to be a waste of their time. The loss also casts a shadow of doubt on the abilities of Rios’ mouthy trainer Robert Garcia and Ariza as their bid to send Pacquiao into retirement using their best weapon failed miserably.

Rios was never in the same league as Pacquiao and will never be.

To be honest, I can’t think of a worse opponent that Pacquiao has had since he became a hot prospect (since he beat Lehlo Ledwaba to win the IBF 122-pound title as a replacement fighter in 2001). Most of Manny’s wins were too abbreviated to elicit a rating and of those that went the distance, only the one against Oscar Larrios held at the Araneta Coliseum in 2006 could be considered “boring”, but Manny almost got knocked down in the third round of that bout and Larrios fought well. It doesn’t even come close to the kind of performance Rios displayed in Macau.

You can make a case for the fight against Clottey and maybe even the one against Mosley, but after Rios, those fights were even more entertaining.

Maybe you can think of someone who had a worse showing against Pacquiao over the full distance. Manny didn’t knock out Rios because he didn’t have to. He looked like he enjoyed toying with the former lightweight king. And Manny used the fight as a public workout. That’s humiliating for Garcia et. al.

Roach mentioned in his “wish list” Marquez, Bradley and unscathed Floyd Mayweather, Jr. as Manny’s possible opponent this coming April.

Of the three he mentioned, a rematch with Bradley should be most logical choice. Duane Ford and CJ Ross robbed Manny of a legitimate win. Bradley barely squeaked past Marquez last month. If you all want to witness the “Pacman” knock someone out, Bradley will be that scalp. Then Manny can go on to challenge IBF titlist Devon Alexander or WBA champ Adrien "The Problem" Broner to unify the division and then consider either dangling the belts to lure Marquez or go for his final showdown against Mayweather (current WBC titlist) and then retire. Heck, even guys like Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero, Marcos Maidana and elevating Ruslan Provodnikov and Mike Alvarado could even come into the mix on this one.

While all of that is still in the air for now, let’s all relish Pacquiao’s triumph. He did it for himself and he did it for the country—albeit against the weakest foe he’s had in years.

Follow Noel Zarate on Twitter (@NoelZarate) and email sportztackle@yahoo.com

Editor's note: The blogger's views do not represent Yahoo! Southeast Asia's position on the topic or issue being discussed in this post.