Brandon Rios didn't make weight for his HBO PPV undercard fight with John Murray but the fight went ahead as planned with Rios being forced to vacate his title win or lose.
Both men came out, stood toe to toe right away and threw power shots back and forth. Rios looked mostly okay through the round but was bothered by a punch to the hip. Rios landed a very good uppercut in the round but Murray continued coming forward to close the round.
Murray's pressure started to bother Rios much more in the second as his combination punching started to get in a bit more often.
Through four rounds it was developing into a war before Rios started taking big, deep breaths and looking to fade a bit.
As it hit the fifth round, Murray actually outlanded Rios by power shots by almost twenty. A bizarre thing to see with a guy as noted as a power puncher as Rios.
The exhausted Rios continued to fire shots and fight like hell despite not being anywhere near his usual self physically. It was turning out to be a gutsy performance from a man who didn't want to suffer his first career loss in a bout where he failed to make weight.
Round seven saw Murray was deducted a point for a low blow which put him in a very bad situation.
Murray, bleeding from the mouth and nose, started to lose the steam on his punches while Rios continued to fire uppercuts and take the fight over.
Rios was able to continue working despite being clearly affected by the weight. In the eleventh round, Rios opened up with big shots and Murray's lack of defense led to him getting crushed.
As big uppercuts and right hands landed over and over for Rios, finally the referee was forced to jump in and give Rios the eleventh round TKO victory.
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