Lightweights Rios, Abril go heavy into trash talk
After boxing rivals Brandon Rios and Richard Abril had engaged in two earlier physical confrontations with each other, Top Rank president Todd duBoef decided enough was enough.
Rios and Abril got into a skirmish Monday at a news conference in Los Angeles, so duBoef wasn’t going to risk either or both fighters getting hurt and/or fined by the Nevada Athletic Commission before their WBA lightweight title fight Saturday at Mandalay Bay Events Center. So duBoef ordered the two to play nice Wednesday at the final news conference in the Mizuya Lounge at Mandalay Bay.
The fighters did not pose together. Trash talk at the podium was kept to a minimum.
But neither fighter maintained a vow of silence.
“I don’t like him,” Abril said through an interpreter. “He talks a lot of (expletive), and I don’t like people who talk (expletive). I’m going to break his mouth.”
Rios, who is fighting for the vacant WBA belt for a second time after losing it on the scales following his failure to make the 135-pound weight limit on Dec. 3 against John Murray, thinks Abril talks too much himself.
“Who is this guy? He’s nothing,” Rios said. “I’m not letting this unknown come in and ruin eight years of hard work I put into building my professional boxing career.”
The feud started several weeks ago when Rios was in Miami for a news conference to promote what originally was Rios’ fight with Yuriorkis Gamboa. But when Gamboa failed to show up, Abril confronted Rios and demanded that Rios fight him instead.
Trash talk escalated into pushing and shoving.
“I was supposed to be with Gamboa, and all of a sudden this guy (Abril) came in, and he started talking smack,” Rios said. “He came up to me and said, ‘I want to fight you,’ and I said, ‘Who are you? You look like an average guy with a tuxedo on.’
“He kept running his mouth saying, ‘I’m the champion, and you are nothing.’ I said, ‘You are the champion, and you want to fight me? There’s my manager (Cameron Dunkin) right there. Go talk to him.’ ”
Gamboa subsequently pulled out of the fight, reportedly because he was unhappy with the $1.1 million payday he was to receive. And, in the wake of Abril pushing him in Miami, Rios (29-0-1, 21 knockouts) said he would be happy to face Abril (17-2-1, eight KOs).
HBO Pay Per View will televise the card, which will include a junior welterweight bout between Juan Manuel Marquez (53-6-1, 39 KOs) and Sergey Fedchenko (30-1, 13 KOs) in Mexico City.
“He called me out, and here I am,” Rios said. “Sometimes you should be careful what you wish for.”
The 25-year-old Rios, who lives and trains in Oxnard, Calif., and Abril, a 29-year-old from Cuba, have something in common: Both defeated acclaimed Venezuelan lightweight Miguel Acosta. Rios got his victory on Feb. 26, 2011, when he stopped Acosta in the 10th round to win the WBA title. Abril took a 12-round decision over Acosta on Oct. 22 to win the WBA interim title.
Each fighter thinks he has the better win.
“I beat Miguel Acosta in his prime, unlike Abril, who beat him on his way down on short notice,” Rios said.
Said Abril: “When I beat Acosta, I knocked him down three times during the fight. I had the more dominant performance against Acosta.”
Rios, who has a potential big payday awaiting him July 14 against Marquez at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, if both win Saturday, promises not to overlook Abril.
“I take every fight seriously,” he said. “I want my belt back, and there’s no way I’m letting this guy mess with my plans.
“In the boxing world, he is in the darkness, and I plan to keep him there. I haven’t forgotten what he did to me in Miami. He’s going to pay big.”
Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.