Dan Rafael, ESPN Senior Writer 9y

Rios-Alvarado III could happen Dec. 20

Mike Alvarado and Brandon Rios have split two epic fights, both scorching thrillers and fight of the year candidates.

In October 2012, Rios stopped Alvarado in the seventh round and Alvarado exacted revenge in March 2013 by winning a decision (and a vacant interim junior welterweight title).

From the moment the second fight ended a third fight was inevitable, and Top Rank and HBO have talked about making it for January. But now it just might -- surprise -- happen on Dec. 20.

That is what HBO and Top Rank are talking about, Top Rank chairman Bob Arum told ESPN.com.

Arum said that HBO set aside "significant money" to put on a Canelo Alvarez fight with Golden Boy Promotions on Dec. 6 in conjunction with Alvarez's recent signing of a long-term deal with the network. But an ankle injury knocked Alvarez off the date and he won't fight until 2015.

"When Canelo said he couldn't go on Dec. 6 that freed up a considerable amount of money which, like most corporations, if they don't spend it this year it goes back to the company and they get a new budget next year," Arum said. "So we are seeing if they can use some of those funds set aside for the Canelo fight for Rios-Alvarado on Dec. 20 and add a show to the schedule for the consumers.

"HBO told us they want the fight but we hadn't discussed it for this year. This came out of the blue after Canelo said he wasn't fighting on Dec. 6."

HBO still plans to do a card with Golden Boy on Dec. 6, but it won't be for nearly the same price tag the show with Alvarez would have cost.

Top Rank president Todd duBoef has been talking to HBO Sports president Ken Hershman about the deal. DuBoef said he has talked to both fighter camps about the prospect of moving up the date of the fight from early 2015 to Dec. 20.

Arum said if Rios-Alvarado III -- which would be at welterweight -- happens on Dec. 20 the likely venue would be the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield, Colorado, just outside of Alvarado's hometown of Denver. Arum said the arena is on hold. Alvarado fought there last October and was stopped in the 10th round and lost his junior welterweight world title to Ruslan Provodnikov.

Alvarado (34-3, 23 KOs), 34, has lost two fights in a row, to Provodnikov and a decision to Juan Manuel Marquez in May. Former lightweight titleholder Rios (32-2-1, 23 KOs), 28, of Oxnard, California, has lost two of his last three bouts, the second fight to Alvarado followed by a lopsided decision loss to Manny Pacquiao last November. Rios bounced back with a ninth-round disqualification win against Diego Chaves on Aug. 2.

In addition to the Rios-Alvarado III talks, Arum said HBO has agreed to buy the vacant middleweight title bout between Matt Korobov and Andy Lee with the fight ticketed to either be part of a Dec. 13 tripleheader topped by Timothy Bradley Jr.-Chaves or on the proposed Rios-Alvarado III undercard on Dec. 20.

"Korobov-Lee is definitely going to be this year," Arum said. "It's just matter of if it will be Dec. 13 or Dec. 20."

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