Brandon Rios and Juan Manuel Marquez Look to Impress in This Saturday's Fights

Fast-rising exciting powerhouse Brandon Rios is undefeated with an impressive record of 29 wins and 22 KO's, as well as being a former WBA lightweight champion.

Initially, the boxing world was excited to hear Rios would be fighting fellow undefeated Top Rank stablemate, Cuban sensation Yuriorkis Gamboa, on April 14 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas in what many felt was a "too good to be true" fight.

Unfortunately, our gut feeling was correct. This fight was indeed too good to be true, and Gamboa was ultimately replaced by Cuban contender Richard Abril, who holds a record of 17 wins, eight KO's, two losses and one draw.

Abril pretty much landed himself the fight by calling out Rios to his face in what ended up being an altercation to a Gamboa-less Miami press conference.

Rios vs Abril clearly does not have the appeal of the highly significant initially planned Rios vs Gamboa fight, but then again, any Brandon Rios fight is an exciting fight full of toe-to-toe action where we see Brandon often punishing his opponents onto a stoppage.

Top Rank is billing this pay per view card as Too Big For One Country.

Mostly because it is a split venue pay-per-view card with fights at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and also at the new Arena Mexico in Mexico City with the greatest Mexican fighter of our era, Juan Manuel Marquez—fresh off his controversial loss to Manny Pacquiao last November—taking on WBO European champion Serhiy Fedchenko, who has a record of 30 wins, 13 KO's and one loss.  

Juan Manuel Marquez, best known to casual fight fans for his historical trilogy with Manny Pacquiao, seems to want to keep busy and active while he wants for a fourth fight with the famous Filipino Congressman.

Marquez is already slated to headline another fight at the ever-impressive Dallas Cowboys stadium on July 14, and word is, should Rios get past Abril with no injuries, it will be Marquez vs Rios as the main event for Jerry Jones' playhouse.

So what is the purpose of Saturday's fight card which went from HBO to pay-per-view? It seems that Top Rank wants to keep moving forward, for they had agreements with Mandalay Bay, and should both Rios and Marquez look impressive against (let's keep it real) virtually unknown opponents, then this will be the set up, or even a commercial for the big showdown of Marquez vs Rios on July 14.

Also on Top Rank's Too Big For One Country fight card is what probably may end up being the fight of the night when undefeated light welterweight contender Mike Alvarado—32 wins, 23 KO's—takes on Mauricio Herrera (18 wins, seven KO's, one loss), as well as undefeated lightweight Filipino contender Mercito Gesta taking on Oscar Cuero of Colombia in a 10-rounder.

Tickets for Too Big For One Country at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas range from $25 to $250 and can be purchased via www.Ticketmaster.com or www.MandalayBay.com .

Or you can watch the pay-per-view live on HBO pay-per-view for $44.95 beginning at 9 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. PT.

We will be doing a live round-by-round blog from the Mandalay Bay Saturday night, as King J will be covering the fight live in person in Las Vegas. So check back here at the Bleacher Report boxing community for more coverage and breaking news from this weekend's Top Rank fight card.

KING J is the Bleacher Report Boxing Community Leader and a Featured Columnist.

Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/KingJ323

Follow on Twitter: @KingJ323