CraveOnline is all over the redemption fight to end all redemption fights — Saturday night’s huge Manny Pacquiao-Brandon Rios welterweight bout happening at the Venetian Macao Hotel in China.
Pacquiao, the previous holder of 10 titles in eight different weight classes, is always in the discussion of best pound-for-pound fighters on the scene. But at 34 years old, the Filipino superstar has a lot of career rebuilding to do after getting blasted by rival Juan Manuel Marquez last December. Meanwhile, the 27-year-old Rios has some luster to restore of his own after the American suffered his first career loss at the hands of Mike Alvarado in a unanimous decision back in March.
With both guys aching to get their careers back on the right track, expect a war Saturday night — and you can follow it all live on CraveOnline and with our pals over at fight super-site Sherdog.
It all starts tonight with the live streaming coverage of the Pacquiao-Rios weigh-in at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. Pacific.
Saturday, we’ll also bring you a live stream of the red carpet arrivals as well as all the Pacquiao-Rios undercard bouts, starting at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT.
Fights before the main event include undefeated IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich (17-0, 8 KOs),of Ingrim, Russia, defending his title in a rematch against the man he dethroned, Billy Dib (36-2, 21 KOs), of Sydney Australia; No. 6-world rated contender Andy Ruiz, Jr. (20-0, 14 KOs), of Mexiali, Mexico and New York native Tor Hamer (21-2, 14 KOs), battling for the WBO Inter-Continental and NABF heavyweight titles. You can also see two-time Olympic gold medalist and Chinese icon Zou Shiming (2-0) continues his march toward a world title when he faces undefeated Juan Toscano (4-0, 1 KO), of Ensenada, Mexico; and undefeated 2012 Puerto Rican Olympian Felix Verdejo (8-0, 6 KOs), of San Juan, in a six-round junior lightweight fight against Duanaaymukdahan Petchsamuthr (8-1, 1 KO), of Bangkok, Thailand.
And if you can’t watch Pacquiao and Rios duke it out live on HBO pay-per-view — or even if you can — head over to Sherdog, where their roster of experts will be provide live updates and round-by-round scoring of the mega-bout.
Las Vegas-based boxing writer Mike Sloan will join Sherdog’s own Gary Randall and Mike Fridley to offer insight into the fight and tell you who SHOULD take home the victory. You can follow all that Sherdog live coverage of the fight right here Saturday night.
