Carl Moretti: Brandon Rios-Mike Alvarado III set for Jan. 24

Dec

A third fight between Mike Alvarado and Brandon Rios has been agreed to for Jan. 24 at The 1stBank Center in Bloomfield, Colorado, Top Rank Vice President and matchmaker Carl Moretti, informed RingTV.com. The HBO-televised rubbermatch will be fought at welterweight.

A former lightweight titleholder, Rios (32-2-1, 23 knockouts) is 2-2 in his past four fights. The 28-year-old slugger is coming off a ninth-round disqualification victory over Diego Chaves in August to bounce back from a unanimous decision loss to Manny Pacquiao in his welterweight debut last November.

Prior to Pacquiao, Rios had split junior welterweight bouts with Alvarado (34-3, 23 KOs), stopping him in the seventh round in October 2012 but losing their rematch for the WBO’s vacant 140-pound belt by close unanimous decision in March 2013.

Alvarado, 34, is 3-3 in his past six fights, starting with a bloody 10th-round knockout of Breidis Prescott in November 2011 that was followed by a unanimous decision over Mauricio Herrera in April 2012.

After his second fight with Rios, Alvarado was dropped twice in the eighth of a 10th-round stoppage loss to Ruslan Provodnikov in October 2013 before swapping knockdowns with Juan Manuel Marquez en route to a unanimous decision loss in his last fight in May.

Provodnikov-Alvarado was contested at The 1stBank Center.