Brandon Rios is off to face Diego Chaves this Saturday at the Cosmopolitan in a welterweight bout headlined by HBO. Rios is aware of the importance of the fight. He has come from three successive losses and that the need to redeem himself as an ultimate fighter is crucial.
He said "I'm more relaxed and ready, even though I know this is a do-or-die fight for me. I don't put pressure on myself. I'm ready to go out and do what I do best. I've trained right. I've been disciplined in camp. I've been doing everything [trainer] Robert [Garcia] has been telling me to do. I'm following all of his instructions."
He added "So, I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm more disciplined this time and my diet has been better. My diet has been a big thing. I've hired a cook. I'm on weight already. I feel comfortable."
It can be noticed that Rios' conditioning coach Alex Ariza is not with him anymore. New members of his team now includes sports psychologist Raudel Flores.
Aside from the triple loss, Rios is also facing the issue of using performance-enhancing drug dimenthylamylamine (DMAA) right after losing to Manny Pacquiao in November in Macau, China.
But the boxer vehemently denied that accusation saying that there were some discrepancies during the collection of his sample.
When Rios was prompt to comment on Ariza's absence he said "I've got nothing bad to say about anyone and I'm not going to point a finger at anyone." But his team confirmed that they receive little support coming from promoter Top Rank and anager Cameron Dunkin after news of the positive test was released.
According to Garcia "Brandon doesn't take that [expletive] but no one was really paying attention to us when that happened. Top Rank didn't give us support. [Nor did] Cameron. All they wanted to know was, 'Are you going to get rid of Ariza? Are you going to get rid of Ariza?'"
Rios knows that he has to his former condition when he was on top of his game. He said "This is an important fight for me and I recognize that and I've done the things I need to do to be ready for it. I feel like I did back when I fought at 135 and I had no problem making the weights. I feel great and I just want to get in there and let it go"
