Raging Rios: “I Got the Red Eye. I’m Like a Bull.”

BRANDON RIOS has come a long way since his troublemaking youth.BUT WITH THE HELP OF HIS TRAINER, ROBERT GARCIA, he emerged to become both a better man and a better fighter. Indeed, the undefeated Texan is one of the top contenders in the lightweight division. And on SATURDAY, SEPT. 11 AT THE PALMS LAS VEGAS, Rios will be given the opportunity he’s been waiting for: an HBO fight against another undefeated contender named ANTHONY PETERSON.

We spoke with Rios while he was at Garcia’s Oxnard, Calif.-based gym to talk about his aborted fight against URBANO ANTILLON, his advantages over Peterson, and why he loves being the underdog.

Would you say this is the biggest fight of your career?

It’s for the WBA eliminator, so yeah, it’s gonna be the biggest of my career so far.

Have you been preparing differently for this fight?

Easy guy, tough guy–whatever kind of guy I’m fighting, I prepare myself because anything can happen. I’m always preparing hard.

What’s your schedule like?

We get up at six in the morning. We run. We’ll be done by seven. After seven, I relax. I come to the gym at one o’clock til, like, 4:30. [I] like to run twice a day. So at nighttime I run again. An hour or 30-minute run. Do the same thing again tomorrow.

Are you sparring every day?

We’ve been sparring every other day. We spar Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Has Robert been giving you different kinds of looks in terms of your competition?

We got three different sparring guys we’ve been using. We have one guy that puts a lot of pressure on me, just in case [Peterson] ever wants to go that route. We have another guy that boxes. He moves around a little bit. Then we have another guy that runs around the ring and throws punches. So, we have a runner, we have a boxer that likes to stay there and trade with you and move his body, and then we have a guy that puts a lot of pressure. It’s been working well.

What kind of advantages do you feel like you have over Peterson?

I think my main strength is that I’m an aggressive fighter. I’m a come-forward guy. I’m gonna throw a lot of different combinations. I just don’t work on one shot. I don’t depend on my power. So I think I put tremendous pressure on people: sometimes they fold, sometimes they can hang, and sometimes they don’t.

[PETERSON] SAID THAT AS FAR PREPARING TO FIGHT YOU, IT’S NOT THAT DIFFICULT, because, as you were describing, your style is just pressure, pressure, pressure. What do you think about that?

A lot of people say that. A lot people say that “his style is easy. His style is come forward–I have no problem with it.” But in the ring, they see it different. They don’t know that when I come forward I don’t get hit as much. I block. I make them miss, and I still come forward. And [I’m] throwing shots. People do say a lot of things like that about me, but you know what? They can say whatever. But in the ring that night, he’s gonna see it different and he’s gonna feel that. He’s gonna see a big difference that night.

Would you say that your style…is deceptive? It seems simple. It seems one-dimensional. But when you get in the ring with somebody, it’s a whole different ball game.

They don’t see how I make them miss. How I make them miss, and when they miss, I make them pay for it. It’s a whole different ball game watching it and being live in the ring with me.

Your last fight was supposed to be…against Antillon, but you hurt yourself during sparring–you got cut.

Right. That was supposed to be my last fight.

Robert said that you still wanted to go and fight. You wanted to get yourself stitched up and jump in the ring.

I didn’t want stitches at the time. I told him, “No, Robert, don’t do that. Don’t cancel the fight. We can just superglue it. Let’s just glue it and we’ll fight like that. C’mon.” And he’s like, “Naw, we can’t; it’s a big cut.” I was disappointed and sad. 

That would’ve probably been one of the bigger fights in your career.

Oh yeah, that would have been a big opportunity. Because Antillon is a very aggressive, strong fighter. I think it could’ve been a candidate for “Fight of the Year,” because we both would’ve been just brawling it out. That’s what I was expecting. That’s what I like to expect in fights.

Are you expecting that from Peterson?

I’m expecting something different, because I know Peterson. They say he likes to get in there and punch with you. But you know, to me, he’s gonna be running. I think he’s gonna be running, because after he feels my pressure and after he sees that I don’t back up and after he feels the body shots and the head shots and everything, I think he might be running. But we’ll be ready for whatever. If he’s gonna be a runner, I’m ready for a runner. If he’s gonna be a trader and stay right there and show me what he’s got, I’m gonna be right there with him, too.

 

Do you sometimes look back at where you were and where you are now and kind of have to pinch yourself?

Oh yeah, man, it’s a big change. I see a big difference now. Back then, yeah, I was always in trouble. I guess it was part of the life I was living–the way I grew up. To tell you the truth, I was a dumbass. I would just keep getting in trouble. But now, I see the difference. I’m going on the good track right now. I like it.

When you walk into the ring on Saturday, what’s gonna be going through your mind?

To tell you the truth, I really don’t think about nothing. I don’t like to think about my opponent. I don’t like to think about what I’m gonna do. I’m a fool when I’m in the locker room. I like to play around. Because when I start thinking, sometimes it doesn’t end up right. Sometimes I have a bad night. So I don’t like to think. I like to just be myself. And then right when I get in that ring, that’s when everything just–I calm down. I just focus. I don’t think about nothing. I got the red eye. I’m like a bull. I just keep walking back and forth. Pacing, pacing, pacing. And when that bell rings, that’s it. That’s when everything goes out the window, and I’m just ready.

Anthony says in the later rounds he has a chance to knock you out. Do you have any predictions of your own?

I know for a fact he won’t knock me out. I’m gonna mentally and physically prepared for this fight. I see myself stopping him in the later rounds. I can see it. I know I’m coming in as the underdog, because I never fought on HBO. I like to be an underdog, ’cause I want to quiet everyone that doubts me. I love when people doubt me, because when they doubt me, they [make] me that much stronger. Rios is here, and he’s gonna be the main guy at 135.