Examining Brandon Rios' Future Following Loss vs. Manny Pacquiao

While Brandon Rios has long been viewed as a talented, young fighter, he didn't receive much mainstream exposure until Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao was scheduled to fight him. Rios may not be the next big thing in boxing after losing to Pacquiao in Macau, China, but simply stepping into the ring with Pacman should help his career moving forward.

The fight didn't exactly go as planned for Rios on Saturday. He came in with high hopes and was looking to bounce back from his first career loss. Instead, he met Pacquiao and was dominated throughout the fight.

From the start, Pacquiao was the busier fighter and continued to land more shots. It seemed that he won every single round, and Rios was getting hit with some very big shots very frequently. By the end of the fight, Rios's face was swollen and he had a cut over his left eye, while Pacquiao was relatively unscathed. 

Kevin Iole from Yahoo! Sports gave us the final scorecard, and it really wasn't close:

Rios has a ton of talent and he's fairly charismatic as well, but the main thing holding him back prior to facing Pacquiao was his questionable resume. Not only did he enter the Pacquiao fight coming off a loss to Mike Alvarado, but he didn't have a single fight against a true superstar.

It's true that superstars are difficult to find in the sport of boxing these days, but Rios hadn't really been tested until Saturday. However, Rios got his first real test and was beaten without much trouble. Most of the talk in the aftermath of the bout will focus on Pacquiao's return to normalcy, but Rios deserves some credit for simply being able to survive the bout without being knocked out.

There's no denying that Rios took an absolute beating. He was dominated in every single round. However, the fact that he was able to stay upright and just kept smiling at Pacquiao says a lot about him as a fighter. He's a crazy man, sure, but he refuses to do down.

Pacquiao is no longer in his prime at the age of 34, and his stock had dropped somewhat heading into Saturday's fight, but it's important to remember that he took out the likes of Erik Morales, Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley and a host of others. Pacman is still one of the biggest draws in boxing, and simply stepping into the ring against him will do more for Rios' career than a win over a lesser opponent would have.

Many felt as though Rios was being a bit too brash heading into his fight with Pacquiao, and it's possible that he provided Pacquiao with some bulletin-board material. According to ESPN Boxing, Rios didn't hold back during an interview prior to the fight:

Rios' comments may not have been prophetic as it's unlikely that Pacquiao will retire after winning on Saturday, but the latter part of the statement could still come to fruition. He'll get some more opportunities to prove himself after fighting Pacquiao, even with the loss, and it's up to him to make the most of them.

Rios may not have backed up his words with a winning performance, but his cockiness is only going to help him. Floyd Mayweather's trash-talking has almost as much to do with his popularity as his in-ring work does, and Rios can certainly learn a lot from "Money" on both counts.

The title of "boxing's next star" had previously belonged to Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. After the Mexican phenom was picked apart by Mayweather, however, his stock certainly dropped. There is no question that Alvarez still has a bright future, but he is no longer viewed as a can't-miss guy. The door is wide open right now, but it's going to be very hard.

Even after holding his own against a legend like Pacquiao, it's only natural that detractors will dismiss him since he didn't come out on top. The built-in excuse is that Pacquiao is no longer a great fighter. That may be true after a loss like this, but we've still seen in previous fights what "Bam Bam" can do. Until Rios proves otherwise, he has to be considered a major threat in the welterweight division.

Had Rios won, there almost certainly would have been speculation about him posturing for a fight against Mayweather. As intriguing as that would have been, Rios is a Top Rank fighter, and Mayweather obviously doesn't have a history of smooth negotiations with Top Rank.

In order to get into position to even discuss a Mayweather fight, though, Rios needs to beat some of the other top contenders in the welterweight ranks.

Devon Alexander, Amir Khan, Adrien Broner and Kell Brook would all be worthy opponents. None of them measure up to Pacquiao or Mayweather in terms of drawing power, but it isn't realistic to think that Rios is going to face a superstar whenever he steps into the ring.

If Rios can pick off a couple of guys from the aforementioned group, though, his popularity will continue to grow. Rios has all the makings of a big-time fighter, and even though he didn't score a signature win on Saturday, the boxing world is much more aware of him.

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