MMA Boxing

Mike Alvarado Should Retire From Boxing

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By @paul_past

Brandon Rios punches Mike Alvarado

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Predictably, former lightweight champion Brandon Rios defeated Mike Alvarado on Saturday, Jan. 24, in devastating fashion. To the dismay of many boxing fans, the trilogy fight came nowhere close to living up to the hype that had previously surrounded their great rivalry. Instead, Alvarado was battered from pillar to post.

From the opening bell, Alvarado looked like a shot fighter. His punches were slow, weak and extremely infrequent. His face was a bloody mess after two rounds. After the third round, Alvarado was so badly beaten that he counted four fingers when the ringside physician had only held up two just inches in front of his face.

To put it simply, retirement shouldn’t be an option for Alvarado; it should be mandatory. Sadly, the likelihood of Alvarado actually retiring is a virtual impossibility despite the concrete evidence stacked against him.

He has now lost four of his last five fights. Rios knocked him out in their first fight; Ruslan Provodnikov knocked him down twice and laid a savage beating on him over the course of nine rounds; Juan Manuel Marquez knocked him down twice en route to a unanimous decision loss; most recently, Rios pummeled him more severely than any of his previous defeats.

Following the fight, however, Alvarado told HBO commentator Jim Lampley that his career wasn’t over: “I’m not done yet at all … I will be back. I can guarantee that to everyone in this place.”

What’s especially sad about Alvarado is that his denial now stands as a direct threat to his physical and mental well-being. He’s a 34-year-old father who is getting married on March 14. He’s a convicted felon who was arrested just a week before his trilogy fight for allegedly carrying an illegal firearm at 4 a.m. in the morning. To say that he’s suffered significant neurological damage would actually be an understatement, given the battles he’s endured inside of the ring.

Let’s hope Alvarado won’t read this story, or any other story urging him to retire, as an insult. He’s had an incredibly impressive career and has repeatedly humbled boxing critics and fans alike with his determination and heart, both of which have earned him millions of dollars as a professional prizefighter.

Let’s hope he can allow himself to enjoy his life and family in retirement before it’s too late.

Paul Pastorini is a Boxing Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @paul_past, find him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google.

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