Bradley pounds Rios into retirement, retains WBO title
Maybe there's something to this Timothy Bradley-Teddy Atlas relationship after all.
Bradley, the 32-year-old veteran boxer, never looked better in demolishing an out-of-shape Brandon Rios on Saturday night before 5,106 at the Thomas & Mack Center, scoring a ninth-round technical knockout after dropping Rios twice in the round and ultimately sending him into retirement.
Atlas, the ESPN boxing analyst who took time away from his TV duties seven weeks ago to train Bradley, brought out the best in him. Bradley (33-2-1) dished out a lot of pain without taking any in return, easily retaining his World Boxing Organization welterweight title.
"It was a work of art, man," said Bradley, a minus-500 betting favorite at the Wynn Las Vegas Race and Sports Book. "Teddy cares. He truly cares. I was focused every single day, and Teddy said he's coming back for another training camp."
After showing his speed for the majority of the fight, Bradley displayed his strength in the ninth round. He sent Rios to the canvas with a great right hook to the body. He had hurt Rios to the body earlier in the fight, but this blow really had Rios grimacing.
Rios beat the count but was clearly in trouble, and Bradley went for the finish. He landed several combinations, the last one a right-left to the head that sent Rios down a second time. Referee Tony Weeks stopped the fight at 2:49.
"The game plan was to take pieces, break him down little by little and not get greedy, then finish him," Atlas said. "I wanted (Bradley) to be like a piranha."
Bradley, who made $1.9 million, had not lost a round with any of the three judges, and he had followed Atlas' instructions to the letter. He was quick, elusive and on point with his punches. He showed great alacrity for avoiding trouble and slipped the majority of Rios' punches with little problem.
Rios, whose purse was $800,000, connected on only 81 punches to Bradley's 254. Bradley also had a huge edge in jabs connected, 80 to 14, along with power punches landed, 174-67.
"I did some things differently," Bradley said. "But I hurt him early in the fight with a body shot up the middle, and I said to myself, 'All right, he's soft in the body,' and I was going to go back to that later in the fight, which I did.
"We've been working in the gym on a little five-step move to set up the body shot that I caught him with in the ninth, and it worked perfectly."
Bradley also threw multiple punches, including a quadruple overhand right, all of which landed on the side of Rios' head in the eighth. Bradley said he sometimes stayed in the pocket too long, but he never paid for it.
The win came with few, if any, of the "mortal sins" Atlas warned Bradley about during their training camp.
"I was very proud of Tim," Atlas said. "He followed the game plan, and it was a great performance."
Rios roots for the world champions of baseball, but he didn't fight like a champion. The Kansas City Royals fan had struggled to make weight Friday, needing 40 extra minutes to shed two-tenths of a pound. He entered the ring at 170 pounds — Bradley's rehydrated weight was 155 — and it showed throughout the fight.
Rios was sluggish from the opening bell. He could never sustain an attack, and afterward the 29-year-old said he was retiring after falling to 33-3-1.
"I'm done," Rios said. "I had a wonderful career. But I think it's time for me to hang up the gloves. My body doesn't want to cooperate anymore, and I don't want to get beat up anymore.
"He hit me with a perfect shot up the middle and an equally perfect shot to the side of the head. The better man won. I have no excuses."
Rios' longtime trainer, Robert Garcia, was unable to muster an explanation for his fighter's lackluster performance.
"I don't know," Garcia said. "He was flat. Maybe trying to make weight may have drained him. But if the body's not there, there's nothing you can do about it. I support Brandon's decision 100 percent."
It certainly wasn't the Rios who looked so sharp in routing Mike Alvarado on Jan. 24. Then again, this wasn't the same Bradley who dominated Jessie Vargas on June 27. This Bradley was on his toes, moving effortlessly and confidently, staying out of danger, getting in and out and not leaving himself open to getting hit with a big shot.
Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, Bradley's longtime promoter, said, "That was the best Tim Bradley I've ever seen."
But Bradley said the best may be yet to come. "I'm excited to have coach back," he said of Atlas. "I'm anxious to learn, and I know he can make me even better."
In the co-feature, featherweight Vasyl Lomachenko put on a clinic in taking care of Romulo Koasicha, scoring a 10th-round knockout to retain his WBO title.
Lomachenko (5-1) moved smoothly around the ring, lining up his Mexican opponent and delivering powerful shots from the start. It was a left to the body, ending a series of punches, that finally sent Koasicha (24-5) to the canvas. It appeared he would beat referee Robert Byrd's count, but he remained on one knee and the end came for him at 2:35.
"I was just having fun in there," Lomachenko said. "I knew the end would be a body shot, but I didn't know which one, the left or the right."
Also on the undercard, Japanese middleweight Ryota Murata (8-0) had little trouble winning over 10-round unanimous decision over Gunnar Jackson (21-7-3). Murata led on the scorecards 99-91, 98-92 and 97-93.
— Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him: @stevecarprj
