Bradley stops Rios to boost title hopes

Timothy Bradley won a fight he needed badly on Saturday night, stopping Brandon Rios in the ninth round to stake his claim for a title in a welterweight division that is wide open following Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s retirement.

Bradley (33-1-1) dominated from the opening bell against a sluggish Rios (33-3-1), using his speed and superior boxing skills to win round after round before suddenly dropping Rios with a left hook to the body in the ninth round. Rios got up at the count of eight but offered no resistance to Bradley when the fight resumed and quickly went down under another flurry of punches at 2:49 of the round.

Bradley retained his piece of the 147-pound title with an impressive performance under new trainer Teddy Atlas. He won every round on all three ringside scorecards but had not seemed to seriously hurt Rios before the fight came to a sudden end.