Diego Chavez-Brandon Rios Boxing Bout Turns into WWE Wresting Match
Audiences Saturday night at The Cosmopolitan got a triple treat when a supposedly boxing match between Brandon Rios and Diego Chaves turned into a wrestling match and a mixed martial arts affair all in one.
In the end, Brandon Rios got the victory via a 9th round disqualification. He was also immediately booked into the hospital after sufferance from an assortment of injuries - a corneal abrasion, a shoulder injury and a concussion.
It was a very shameful night for the sport of boxing as both fighters used underhanded tactics to one-up their opponent. Chaves got deducted points in the third and seventh rounds and was assessed the final point deduction, the deciding disqualification, in the ninth round after elbowing Rios in the face.
Rios for his part is not wholly immaculate after also earning a point deduction in the fifth round. Chaves alleged after the fight that Rios was intentionally hitting him in his back which is a no-no in boxing. He even lifted the shirt up and showed the media his bruises to get the point across. Rios for his part was adamant and livid of Chaves' tactics to intentionally hurt his eye and block his vision.
"He kept sticking his glove right into my eye," an irritated Rios shouted to a reporter shortly after the end of the fight and as reported by Yahoo! Sports.
Chaves was actually leading the scorecards before the fight was stopped by referee Vic Drakulich, leading by a point on two of the judges' scores and trailing by one in the other. The fight was exciting at the get-go with both fighters trading heavy haymakers in the early goings. But the officials lost control when the fight when WWE wrestling style with all the holding, slams, and intentional head butts.
The referee tried to control the fight by deducting points but that did not stop the two from engaging in various tactics. Executive Director of the Nevada Athletic Commision Bob Bennett and Francisco Aguilar, the chair of the commission, attended the post-fight conference and tried to give credence to what their official did. Aguilar said that they will schedule a conference to thresh out what transpired during the fight.
"Vic early on tried to set a standard in that fight between these two fighters," Aguilar said. "This was not a boxing match; this was a brawl. They were there to brawl. Vic tried to take control of that fight by deducting the points, whether or not you agree that point was appropriate. He was trying to get control and as the fight went on, he was losing that control."
Rios for his part was not even ecstatic of the way he won the fight. Musings of a rematch are also murky as Promotoer Bob Arum leaned on a Mike Alvarado fight yet again for the third time, or Ruslan Provodnikov or a Timothy Bradley rematch. Due to this, we may never know what happens next or if we will get another wrestling match in the event these two heavy punchers cross paths again.