Guillermo Rigondeaux

[Spicoli]

That's absolutely brutal he's lucky there wasn't permanent blindness.

[Master]

Guillermo Rigondeaux is one of this era’s boxing pound-for-pound greats and he is still fighting at 42.

Vasyl Lomachenko is often praised as the greatest amateur boxer ever, with 397 amateur fights on his record and only one loss, but Rigondeaux had an equally impressive amateur career.

The Cuban graced the ring 475 times as an amateur only losing on 12 occasions and during this time he won two gold medals in the bantamweight division at the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympics.

Rigondeaux also added two World Championship gold medals to his collection in 2001 and 2005, as well as six Cuban national titles, before he defected from his home country in 2009.

This was because turning over to the professional ranks has been prohibited in Cuba since 1962, as the countries now deceased former leader, Fidel Castro, considered it corrupt.

In just his ninth fight as a professional, Rigondeaux secured a world title shot against Rico Ramos, which he won by sixth round knockout to become the WBA super bantamweight world champion.

Soon afterwards he unified this title with the WBO strap, as he recorded a career best win against ‘The Filipino Flash’ Nonito Donaire.

It was all going so well for Rigondeaux as he went unbeaten for the first 17 fights of his professional career and he was also described by Manny Pacquiao‘s trainer, Freddie Roach, as “probably the greatest talent I’ve ever seen.”

But, when he decided to jump up two weight classes to take on the then WBA super featherweight champion and fellow amateur great, Lomachenko, that run came to an end.

Unfortunately for the Cuban, he was soundly beaten by Lomachenko, as he retired on his stool at the end of the sixth round.

Since then, Rigondeaux has not looked the same fighter we had become accustomed to and he has even lost his last two outings.

One of those defeats came in a fight that has been billed as ‘the most boring fight ever’ due to the fact that it broke the CompuBox record for the fewest combined punches landed in a twelve round fight with 91.

Despite a disappointing last few performances, Rigondeaux will return to the ring at 42-years-old tonight in Miami against Jesus Martinez.

“I can’t tell you how happy I feel to return to do what I like so much, which is boxing,” Rigondeaux told Boxing Scene.

“This is the second fight of my career in Miami, the first in Hialeah. I know I’m in the final stretch of my career, but I hope people respond and come see me.

“After all, I am part of the history of Cuban boxing.”

https://talksport.com/sport/boxing/1...anny-pacquiao/

[TIC]

guillermo just scored a first round knockout

[Ron Swanson]

Glad Rigo got a win. One of the all time greatest fighters.

[TIC]

how about guillermo v nonito two?

[Denilson3.0]

Just retire Rigo.

He doesn't seem to get the memo, when things like this happen you pause and reflect and make change. Incredible amateur career and a good pro career but at 41 (probably closer to 50 just looking at him and with his Cuban birth certificate) and coming off back to back losses and only clearly seeing out of one eye and he's talking about coming back? Come on.

In his prime that pressure cooker wouldn't have gotten within an inch of him. Seriously, glad he's getting better. But honestly ? He burnt his eyes but my eyes used to burn when I watched his fights. Had he been a bit more aggressive with a touch of Whitaker to his game, he would have earned more.

But he was ducked. Arum was very upset with his victory over Donaire. He was grooming Nonito to be his next Pac-Man. It's easy to forget what a giant win beating Donaire was at the time. That was HUGE given that Donaire had just won fighter of the year and seem really ready to explode into superstardom. But it took Rigy only 36 minutes to shut all that hype down. After that fight. No one wanted him. Not Frampton. Not LSC. Not Quigg.

When he finally did get a big fight that he wanted against Loma he disgraced himself by quitting. Maybe he knew he'd get KTFO if he didn't the way he fought, that was his only option. Its an unenviable position, entertain the fans, get violently KO'd, bore the crap out of everyone alienate all the fans, scare off opponents, keep the hardcores and your 0

All he has known is boxing and I hope he has some investments like his compadre Frank Sanchez who owns a restaurant in Miami so that he can have a steady income after boxing. Some boxers like Rigo spend their whole lives in boxing and people just kick them to the curb. Hopefully he never has to be concerned where his next meal is coming from.