“Fighting Words” — Rock Bottom for Mike Alvarado
Posted by: David P. Greisman on 1/26/2015
by David P. Greisman
Given his style within the ring, it’s no surprise that Mike Alvarado has been hit with a lot of punches. Given his lifestyle outside of the ring, it’s no surprise that Alvarado hit rock bottom on Saturday night.
The previous two battles between Alvarado and Brandon Rios had been wars. Two of the three judges had a tie on their scorecards when Rios took over to win their first fight by seventh-round technical knockout in October 2012. They had an immediate rematch five and a half months later, and this time Alvarado used more movement to buy himself occasional respites from Rios, mixing boxing and brawling well enough to leave with a close decision victory.
Neither had done well since then. Alvarado went on to lose his super lightweight world title in his first defense, an October 2013 homecoming in front of a faithful Colorado crowd that watched Ruslan Provodnikov pressure Alvarado, knock him down twice and break him down until he remained in his corner after the 10th round. He went on to lose a lopsided decision to Juan Manuel Marquez last May.
Rios did little of note in losing wide to Manny Pacquiao in November 2013, then tested positive for a banned substance afterward. He returned last August against the rugged Diego Chaves. Their match quickly deteriorated into a foul-filled fight, and Rios was slightly behind on two of three scorecards when Chaves was disqualified in the ninth round.
Still—despite their recent history apart from each other and because of their history when in together—boxing fans hoped that Alvarado-Rios 3 would be a rubber match like the third fight between junior featherweights Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez, another close and entertaining slugfest between ring rivals and the consensus best fight of that year.
Alvarado-Rios 3 was no Vazquez-Marquez 3. Instead, it more closely resembled Marquez-Vazquez 4.
That unnecessary sequel came two years after their third fight, when both men had gotten time to recover and had faced other opponents in the interim. Vazquez had spent 19 months out of the ring before returning against Angel Priolo. Though Priolo was a naturally lighter man coming off six straight losses, five by knockout, he was still able to hit and mark up and cut Vazquez. Two judges had the bout a draw through eight before Vazquez dispatched Priolo in the ninth.
Marquez had returned earlier that year after a 14-month layoff, making short work of a foe named Jose Francisco Mendoza. He appeared to have much more left to offer. Vazquez, meanwhile, had clear scar tissue above his eyes, the remnant of the three Marquez wars and the many others that had come before. Marquez had little trouble reopening old wounds. Vazquez didn’t last three rounds and never fought again.
Alvarado’s life outside of the ring was similar to the way he fights: lots of offense and lacking a good defense. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s compilation of Alvarado’s criminal record listed 24 arrests between May 2000 and January 2014. His career had been halted before while he was incarcerated, though he stayed out of serious trouble long enough after his release in 2010 to rebuild.
He was about a minute away from losing when he scored a dramatic stoppage over Breidis Prescott in November 2011. He won a highly enjoyable fight with Mauricio Herrera in April 2012. Those wins landed him a shot at Brandon Rios, and his performance in defeat earned him the rematch. He won, picking up an interim belt that later transitioned into him being recognized as a world titleholder.
But his lack of discipline caught up with him. Alvarado didn’t help his cause with subpar preparation for his fight with Provodnikov. He was arrested for being a convicted felon in possession of a gun. He failed to show for court dates. He had open warrants out for his arrest.
He was taken into custody in Nevada last fall and extradited to Colorado, all while the third Rios fight was being negotiated. He again skipped court dates. Then, just three weeks before their bout, he was arrested once again. A 4 a.m. ride as a passenger in his own vehicle—one for which the registration was expired—led to an arrest on those missed court dates, plus the matter of a gun found in the glove box after officers saw something being shoved inside.
Alvarado claimed afterward that the gun belonged to his friend, the driver. It’s fair to be skeptical of that claim. He also said he had gone out late because he was thirsty.
As questionable as that supposed thirst was, the biggest issue proved to be his lack of hunger.
He had lost two in a row. He was going into what was certain to be a hard fight, one in which a win could turn his career around. Yet he continued to get in trouble and continued to sound as if this was something that was happening to him, not something he was doing to himself.
“There have been no distractions. I am used to something always going wrong in camp,” he said before the bout. “When it is going too good and perfect, I know something bad is going to happen because that’s the way it has always been. I have been dealing with adversity my whole life. Adversity has been in my life the whole time, so there are not distractions for this fight.”
He said that it was better for him to train in Colorado instead of California, as the Denver area was where he was comfortable and where his family and children were. Then again, home is also where he continued to run afoul of the law.
He was lying to us—and to himself.
Rios took advantage of Alvarado from the outset. There was no trading; Alvarado largely received. The fight only went three rounds. Undeterred, Rios was credited with landing 120 of 290 punches, a 41 percent connect rate, according to CompuBox. He was 100 of 198 with power shots, hitting Alvarado about half the time.
Those numbers for landed punches in three rounds closely resemble what it took Rios five rounds to do in both the first and second fights.
Alvarado was a paltry 20 of 87 in total on Saturday night, throwing just 29 punches per round, landing about 7. In the previous Alvarado-Rios rematch, he had landed 19 total punches, including 10 power shots, in the first round alone.
The fighter who had been arrested with a firearm had shown up gun-shy.
Rios cut Alvarado above the eye on Saturday with an uppercut, knocked him down and poured on the punishment. Alvarado sounded done in his corner after the third round. While his team wanted the fight to continue, Alvarado looked at the number of fingers being held up by the ringside physician and gave the wrong answer.
It was the right time for the fight to end. Alvarado hadn’t given himself any chance going in, and his inability to see allowed him to look for a way to go out.
“It was all in the preparation of my training. I wasn’t training like I should have been,” Alvarado said afterward. “That’s what I get.”
He repeated those four words a couple more times during the interview. He spoke of getting himself healthy and of his upcoming wedding.
He had deluded himself going into the fight and will only damage himself further if he doesn’t treat this as rock bottom. His hometown crowd booed him. They’ve now watched him lose two fights there and have now heard him subsequently blame his preparation, his not taking seriously bouts for which they were paying to support him.
It will be difficult for him to rebuild, and it will take a disciplined approach to life and training that he’s failed to show on far too many occasions. He’s done more damage to himself than Rios, Marquez, Provodnikov, Herrera and Prescott combined.
It doesn’t matter if he gets married if he remains separated from that reality.
http://www.boxingscene.com/fighting-words-rock-bottom-mike-alvarado--86725
Dude needs to REALLY get his ducks in a row and focus on his boxing career. He's killing himself and eventually, will be used as a gatekeeper for prospects on FNF if he doesnt get it together
Posted by: David P. Greisman on 1/26/2015
by David P. Greisman
Given his style within the ring, it’s no surprise that Mike Alvarado has been hit with a lot of punches. Given his lifestyle outside of the ring, it’s no surprise that Alvarado hit rock bottom on Saturday night.
The previous two battles between Alvarado and Brandon Rios had been wars. Two of the three judges had a tie on their scorecards when Rios took over to win their first fight by seventh-round technical knockout in October 2012. They had an immediate rematch five and a half months later, and this time Alvarado used more movement to buy himself occasional respites from Rios, mixing boxing and brawling well enough to leave with a close decision victory.
Neither had done well since then. Alvarado went on to lose his super lightweight world title in his first defense, an October 2013 homecoming in front of a faithful Colorado crowd that watched Ruslan Provodnikov pressure Alvarado, knock him down twice and break him down until he remained in his corner after the 10th round. He went on to lose a lopsided decision to Juan Manuel Marquez last May.
Rios did little of note in losing wide to Manny Pacquiao in November 2013, then tested positive for a banned substance afterward. He returned last August against the rugged Diego Chaves. Their match quickly deteriorated into a foul-filled fight, and Rios was slightly behind on two of three scorecards when Chaves was disqualified in the ninth round.
Still—despite their recent history apart from each other and because of their history when in together—boxing fans hoped that Alvarado-Rios 3 would be a rubber match like the third fight between junior featherweights Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez, another close and entertaining slugfest between ring rivals and the consensus best fight of that year.
Alvarado-Rios 3 was no Vazquez-Marquez 3. Instead, it more closely resembled Marquez-Vazquez 4.
That unnecessary sequel came two years after their third fight, when both men had gotten time to recover and had faced other opponents in the interim. Vazquez had spent 19 months out of the ring before returning against Angel Priolo. Though Priolo was a naturally lighter man coming off six straight losses, five by knockout, he was still able to hit and mark up and cut Vazquez. Two judges had the bout a draw through eight before Vazquez dispatched Priolo in the ninth.
Marquez had returned earlier that year after a 14-month layoff, making short work of a foe named Jose Francisco Mendoza. He appeared to have much more left to offer. Vazquez, meanwhile, had clear scar tissue above his eyes, the remnant of the three Marquez wars and the many others that had come before. Marquez had little trouble reopening old wounds. Vazquez didn’t last three rounds and never fought again.
Alvarado’s life outside of the ring was similar to the way he fights: lots of offense and lacking a good defense. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s compilation of Alvarado’s criminal record listed 24 arrests between May 2000 and January 2014. His career had been halted before while he was incarcerated, though he stayed out of serious trouble long enough after his release in 2010 to rebuild.
He was about a minute away from losing when he scored a dramatic stoppage over Breidis Prescott in November 2011. He won a highly enjoyable fight with Mauricio Herrera in April 2012. Those wins landed him a shot at Brandon Rios, and his performance in defeat earned him the rematch. He won, picking up an interim belt that later transitioned into him being recognized as a world titleholder.
But his lack of discipline caught up with him. Alvarado didn’t help his cause with subpar preparation for his fight with Provodnikov. He was arrested for being a convicted felon in possession of a gun. He failed to show for court dates. He had open warrants out for his arrest.
He was taken into custody in Nevada last fall and extradited to Colorado, all while the third Rios fight was being negotiated. He again skipped court dates. Then, just three weeks before their bout, he was arrested once again. A 4 a.m. ride as a passenger in his own vehicle—one for which the registration was expired—led to an arrest on those missed court dates, plus the matter of a gun found in the glove box after officers saw something being shoved inside.
Alvarado claimed afterward that the gun belonged to his friend, the driver. It’s fair to be skeptical of that claim. He also said he had gone out late because he was thirsty.
As questionable as that supposed thirst was, the biggest issue proved to be his lack of hunger.
He had lost two in a row. He was going into what was certain to be a hard fight, one in which a win could turn his career around. Yet he continued to get in trouble and continued to sound as if this was something that was happening to him, not something he was doing to himself.
“There have been no distractions. I am used to something always going wrong in camp,” he said before the bout. “When it is going too good and perfect, I know something bad is going to happen because that’s the way it has always been. I have been dealing with adversity my whole life. Adversity has been in my life the whole time, so there are not distractions for this fight.”
He said that it was better for him to train in Colorado instead of California, as the Denver area was where he was comfortable and where his family and children were. Then again, home is also where he continued to run afoul of the law.
He was lying to us—and to himself.
Rios took advantage of Alvarado from the outset. There was no trading; Alvarado largely received. The fight only went three rounds. Undeterred, Rios was credited with landing 120 of 290 punches, a 41 percent connect rate, according to CompuBox. He was 100 of 198 with power shots, hitting Alvarado about half the time.
Those numbers for landed punches in three rounds closely resemble what it took Rios five rounds to do in both the first and second fights.
Alvarado was a paltry 20 of 87 in total on Saturday night, throwing just 29 punches per round, landing about 7. In the previous Alvarado-Rios rematch, he had landed 19 total punches, including 10 power shots, in the first round alone.
The fighter who had been arrested with a firearm had shown up gun-shy.
Rios cut Alvarado above the eye on Saturday with an uppercut, knocked him down and poured on the punishment. Alvarado sounded done in his corner after the third round. While his team wanted the fight to continue, Alvarado looked at the number of fingers being held up by the ringside physician and gave the wrong answer.
It was the right time for the fight to end. Alvarado hadn’t given himself any chance going in, and his inability to see allowed him to look for a way to go out.
“It was all in the preparation of my training. I wasn’t training like I should have been,” Alvarado said afterward. “That’s what I get.”
He repeated those four words a couple more times during the interview. He spoke of getting himself healthy and of his upcoming wedding.
He had deluded himself going into the fight and will only damage himself further if he doesn’t treat this as rock bottom. His hometown crowd booed him. They’ve now watched him lose two fights there and have now heard him subsequently blame his preparation, his not taking seriously bouts for which they were paying to support him.
It will be difficult for him to rebuild, and it will take a disciplined approach to life and training that he’s failed to show on far too many occasions. He’s done more damage to himself than Rios, Marquez, Provodnikov, Herrera and Prescott combined.
It doesn’t matter if he gets married if he remains separated from that reality.
http://www.boxingscene.com/fighting-words-rock-bottom-mike-alvarado--86725
Dude needs to REALLY get his ducks in a row and focus on his boxing career. He's killing himself and eventually, will be used as a gatekeeper for prospects on FNF if he doesnt get it together
true though