What Bradley said was exactly what the crowd saw when the Cathedral City boxing star dismantled Rios round after round, leading up to a TKO win in the ninth to retain his WBO welterweight title.
“Everyone who watches is going to be amazed … this is an entirely different animal,” Bradley told reporters this week. “They’re going to see one fighter in there fighting [and] the other fighter is going to be playing catchup. I’m ready for everything Rios brings.”
Bradley dominated the fight from the opening round as Rios failed to put up a good defense against Bradley’s sustained attack.
Except for a few power shots that landed on target in the second round and a few shots in the later rounds, Rios failed to find his range as Bradley continued with his jabs and body shots that mostly found their mark.
In the ninth round, Bradley continued to be the aggressor, hitting Rios with an unobstructed power shot that put Rios down, but he got up to beat the count. Bradley followed up with another hard body shot that sent Rios to the canvas as referee Tony Weeks intervened to halt the fight without even counting.
Rios’ trainer Robert Garcia was talking about a possible knockout win for Rios in the early rounds as he was plotting his moves against Rios’ new trainer, Teddy Atlas. Surprisingly, Rios failed to execute what Garcia wanted him to do.
“The way to beat Tim Bradley is to put on pressure in the fight and try to knock him out,” Rios’ trainer Robert Garcia said. “We plan to cut off the ring and turn this into a real fight. We are not concerned with his change in a chief trainer because Bradley always comes in top condition and is ready to fight. Joel Diaz did a good job with Bradley.”
It was evident that Rios was out of shape as he was having a hard time catching up with Bradley, who was very active and fresh throughout the fight.
With the win, Bradley improved his record to 33-1-1 with 13 knockouts while Rios drops to 33-3-1 with 24 knockouts.
