Boxer Mike Alvarado Arrested After Denver Police Find Gun
DENVER (AP) - Boxer Mike Alvarado's upcoming bout is still on despite his arrest this weekend on weapons charges after Denver police found a handgun in the glove compartment of his Hummer.
He's scheduled to step into the ring against Brandon Rios for a third time on Jan. 24 in Broomfield, Colorado.
Alvarado, a former world title holder from Denver, was a passenger in his Hummer when officers stopped it early Saturday because it had expired license plates, according to police reports. Officers said they saw Alvarado appear to be pushing something into the glove compartment and trying to close it.
He told police the Hummer was his, and that he knew the plates were expired because he had just got it out of the shop, the reports say. Police arrested him on other outstanding warrants and then found the gun while searching his vehicle.
In 2008, Alvarado pleaded guilty to aggravated driving with a revoked license, a felony. As a convicted felon, the 34-year-old Alvarado cannot legally possess a firearm.
Court records show he was wanted on an outstanding warrant in neighboring Adams County for the same offense, possession of a weapon by a previous offender. Authorities were also seeking him on an outstanding traffic offense.
Court records also show he was released from the Denver jail on bond, but they do not list an attorney for him.
Alvarado - who goes by the nickname "Mile High" - has dropped his last two bouts, including one against Ruslan Provodnikov in October 2013 in front of a hometown crowd, losing the World Boxing Organization junior welterweight title in the process.
Now, Alvarado is trying to get his career back on track against Rios. The friends have split their previous two action-packed bouts, which featured 3,003 punches thrown over 19 rounds.
Carl Moretti, vice president of boxing operations for Top Rank, which is promoting the fight, said "the show is still going on" despite Alvarado's arrest.
"Obviously we don't condone what happened," Moretti told The Associated Press on Monday. "Unfortunately, this is the drama you sometimes get with a Mike Alvarado fight."
The officer who arrested Alvarado on Saturday wrote in the report that he knew Alvarado from past run-ins. Alvarado was jailed last year on an outstanding warrant for failing to make a court appearance in a traffic case. Last month, he told the AP he was also detained in Las Vegas in October for "procrastinating on a driving ticket."
He said he did 1,000 pushups a day in his cell because he couldn't train and felt like a "lion in a cell," he said.
Since then, he added that he has "just been staying focused on my training. Doing what I need to do to win this fight."
- By Pat Graham, AP Sports Writer
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