There's a little de facto tournament going on among Top Rank's stable of lightweights, and it isn't like all the other promotional xenophobia coming out of Bob Arum's shop of late. That's because there's nothing at all bad about it. It's given us the TQBR Fight of the Year for 2010 with Humberto Soto-Urbano Antillon, and Saturday on Showtime, it will give us what is widely expected to be a highly competitive affair between two men -- Brandon Rios and Miguel Acosta -- with polar opposite styles, except for the part where both of them are good at knocking out fools.
Rios very much has the feel of being one of the next big action stars in the sport, the heir to Antonio Margarito's mantle. Like his fellow Robert Garcia-trained boxer and sparring buddy, Rios comes forward, and comes forward, and comes forward some more and when you punch him he smiles; but unlike a lot of boxers who pull that trick to hide how bad it hurts, he genuinely seems to like it. Also like Margarito, he's acquired a villainous cloak, even earning it alongside Margs when the pair famously mocked trainer Freddie Roach for having Parkinson's disease in a much-discussed video last year (and Rios, for good measure, has thrown in homophobic epithets toward Victor Ortiz).
Acosta (photographed above by Tom Casino of Showtime) is a subtler fellow. He has snuck up on people with a couple upset wins, but he has earned his #1 ranking at 135 via Ring Magazine with them. He has power, like Rios, but he deploys it differently, relying on defense, footwork, counterpunching and a good jab as opposed to pure pressure.
And that, really, is the crux of why this match-up is fairly well anticipated. Soto-Antillon II this summer is a better pure brawl, but Rios-Acosta has a strategic dynamic that leave the outcome in great doubt. Can Rios catch Acosta and beat him down with his "Hulk smash" act, or will Acosta judo his ass and use all that brawn against him?
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