Rios vs. Alvarado in 2013
Brandon Rios (L) of the U.S. takes a punch from compatriot Mike Alvarado during a super lightweight bout for an interim 140lb WBO title at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada March 30, 2013. Alvarado won the fight by an unanimous decision. The fight was a rematch from an October 13, 2012 fight which Rios won. Reuters

Mike Alvarado, who will be in a big fight on Jan. 24, 2015 in an HBO main event, has been arrested in Denver on Saturday for possession of a handgun among other charges. The development will not affect his upcoming fight with Brandon Rios, whom he meets for the third time in his career, according to his promoters.

"We are aware of everything that went on that we can be aware of and we were told that Mike hasn't missed any training and plans to be at the gym for his regular training as usual," Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti said to ESPN.com. ”We don't condone what happened in any way and we respect the authorities. That said, we don't anticipate a problem with the show and it is still scheduled to go ahead on Jan. 24. After that, Mike will have to deal with the legal issues.

Alvarado was driving a car, a Hummer, which apparently had an expired licence registration and it was discovered that he had a handgun in the glove box. The incident happened early morning of Saturday and it is not the first time that Alvarado has had brushes with the law in the past. Alvarado’s scheduled time in the ring won’t be affected assured by Top Rank but he is looking to spend jail time if is convicted of the charges, particularly of the “felony possession of a hand gun by a convicted felon” case.

Alvarado was released on $41,500 bond and did not talk to the media. The Top Rank boss believes that the incident won’t affect Alvarado’s performance on the ring against Rios but said that this is not the kind of publicity stunt they want for the fight.

The 34-year-old Alvarado has a record of 34-3-0 with 23 knockouts and will be up against 28-year-old Rios, who owns a record of 32-2-0 with 23 knockouts. The pair met on October 13, 2012 with Rios winning by Technical Knockout (TKO) in the seventh round and then again on March 30, 2013 when Alvarado tied the head-to-head series with a unanimous decision win. Both fighters had their opportunity against top ranked fighters but Alvarado lost to Ruslan Provodnikov in 2013 and Juan Manuel Marquez in 2014 while Rios lost to Manny Pacquiao in 2013.

To contact author of this article, email j.gloria@IBTimes.com.au

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