Lesson learned, Rios looks for biggest win of his career

Outside of boxing insiders, Brandon Rios wasn't known to many. Then came the ill-advised video shot during HBO's 24/7 for the Manny Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito fight.

Rios along with trainer Robert Garcia and Margarito was caught by a blogger mocking Freddie Roach's Parkinson's disease.

Rios looked like an immature clown and was ripped for a few days and. On the edge of stardom, it's not what the young prospect wanted as his image. His manager Cameron Dunkin said lesson has been learned.

"I told him, 'You're on HBO, Showtime, it's 24-7, from now on everything you do will be looked at, watched,' " Dunkin told USA Today."I said, 'You're bigger than you think. Don't let it go to your head, but people watch you, people know what you're doing. But when you act stupid like that, Brandon, they won't be watching you for long.'"

The 24-year-old is 26-0-1 with 18 KOs. He's got excellent punching power for a smaller fighter. The other key for Rios is making sure he stays "small." As a late fill-in on the Pacquiao-Margarito card, he looked doughy at 140.

He's back tomorrow night at 135 to challenge for the WBA lightweight title held by Miguel Acosta (Showtime 10 p.m. ET/PT).

"Becoming a world champion is something I've wanted since I started boxing," Rios told the L.A. Times."I told my dad at age 10 I'd be a world champion."

His father's been a big part of his life and more recently his training camp. Manuel made the jaunt from Rios' homestate of Kansas to stay around his son during his camp in Oxnard, Ca.

"I wanted him here for some motivation, for him to come down and see me get ready and to fight for this world title," Rios said. "My dad works at a Tyson slaughterhouse plant in Kansas. He kills the cows and makes us all healthy and fat. When you eat a steak, think of my dad."

Rios was once a troubled kid, who was in and out of jail and at risk of being dropped by Top Rank Promotions. Garcia thinks the kid has his act together and is ready for stardom. The true test comes tomorrow against a rough, tough fighter in Acosta (28-3-2, 22 KOs).

Rios indicated to Showtime P.R. that he respects Acosta, but with a win it sounds like he wants Humberto Soto next.

"[Acosta's] a very physical fighter and moves around very well. To tell you the truth, I really wanted to fight (current World Boxing Council lightweight champion) Humberto Soto next for the WBC world title. After he fought on Sept. 4 and won he was supposed to fight me but then he decided he didn’t want to and I don’t know why," Rios said. "Instead they gave me another world title shot with the WBA champion so I’m OK with that."

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