By Edward Chaykovsky

Madison Square Garden, New York City - Brandon Rios (29-0-1, 22KOs) stopped a very brave John Murray (31-2, 18KOs) in the eleventh round. Rios lost the WBA lightweight title on the scale after being unable to make the division limit of 135-pounds on Friday.

The went right to the middle of the ring and started trading hard punches on the inside. As promised, Murray did not take a step back and showed his tough nature by taking Rios' hard punches and coming back with hard blows of his own.

In the third, Rios stunned Murray and uppercut on the inside and started punihsing Murray for a moment. Murray recovered quick and started firing combinations. A lot of people saw Murray being blown out early. He was game and fighting Rios in a high tempo toe to toe battle.

Murray started taking damage in the sixth. Murray suffered a cut on his face and he started to swell from the punches that were landing, especially uppercuts, at close range. In the seventh round, Murray lost a point for landing a bad low blow. By the eight, Murray's eyes were both bruised up and swollen bad. Murray was game and continued to fight Rios in close quarters.

In the tenth, Rios seemed to hurt his right hand and Murray started landing some good punches on the inside when Rios stopped throwing. Rios' inactivity didn't last long. They were trading a lot on the inside. Murray was doing everything possible to turn the tide. He was coming up short and none of his punches were unable to hurt Rios.

In the eleventh, Murray started taking a lot of damage against ropes after being stunned by a series of uppercuts. Rios started unloading with his combinations until the referee jumped in to wave it off.