Boxers Mike Alvarado and Brandon Rios were clowning and mugging Monday from a podium at the historic Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.
It was all a fun exchange — and an oddly friendly one, considering expectations that they’ll bloody each other in a pitched battle in October.
Denver’s Alvarado (33-0, 23 knockouts) will face Rios (30-0-1, 21 KOs) in a junior welterweight bout on Oct. 13 outdoors at the Home Depot Center near L.A. They kicked off promotion for the fight Monday with super bantamweights Nonito Donaire and Toshiaki Nishioka.
“This is the fight I’ve been waiting for, “Alvarado said. “Everything’s going to be tested that night — our heart, chin, stamina.”
Alvarado and Rios each carry reputations as entertaining boxers who press forward and hit hard. Combined, their knockout rate ranks among the highest for a high-profile fight this year.
“This is the fight that’s going to be talked about for a very long time,” Alvarado said.
Already, fight fans are hoping Alvarado-Rios matches the famed barnburner trilogy between Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward a decade ago.
“It’s going to be a bloody, violent fight,” said Rios, who fights out of Oxnard, Calif.
In an April fight, over a back-and-forth action exchange that already has votes on fight-of-the-year lists. That bout was on the undercard of Rios’ controversial split-decision victory over Richard Abril.
Nick Groke: 303-954-1015, ngroke@denverpost.com or twitter.com/nickgroke
