Guillermo Rigondeaux Wins Easily, As Usual
by Seamus McNally
Super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (17–0, 11 KOs) defeated Liverpool native James Dickens (22–2, 7 KOs) via second round stoppage Saturday in Cardiff, Wales. Dickens’ corner stopped the fight in between the second and third rounds when they discovered that Dickens suffered a fractured jaw in the second frame.
The Cuban sensation landed a flush overhand left in the opening minute of the second round that caused the damage. Besides that one big punch landed by Rigondeaux, the fight was very uneventful. The two fighters did more staring at each other than fighting, going large stretches just feinting and not letting their hands go.
Despite his supreme talents, two Olympic gold medals and placement on a plethora of pound-for-pound lists, Rigondeaux has been practically banned from American TV due to the low-risk style described above. After a virtuoso performance against 2012 Fighter of the Year Nonito Donaire in April 2013, Rigondeaux failed to translate the huge win into stardom.
HBO gave him a main event slot against Joseph Agbeko later that year in December, but though Rigondeaux won every round, the fans were streaming towards the exits early. He didn’t even attempt to get his overmatched opponent out of there, and was content to do the bare minimum to win each round.
The performance against Agbeko turned Rigondeaux into a world traveler out of necessity to get fights. He took his talents to Asia in 2014 with a July fight in China and a December fight in Japan.
He was signed by Roc Nation Sports in November 2015 and was quickly given a large platform to get back in the good graces of HBO and the bloodthirsty American audience by being featured on the HBO PPV telecast of the Miguel Cotto-Canelo Alvarez fight. He once again neglected to bring the fireworks, delivering a performance reminiscent of the Agbeko fight. The crowd let him know they didn’t appreciate his unwillingness to engage unless absolutely necessary, booing the dreck of a fight practically from the opening bell.
This once again prompted Rigondeaux to hit the road where his style is more appreciated. The fight against Dickens was supposed to take place on March 12 in the challenger’s hometown of Liverpool, but Rigondeaux had visa issues and the fight was rescheduled. The extra four months to prepare did not help Dickens’ chances to beat the gifted Rigondeaux.
Unfortunately, due to the high risk, low reward nature that comes with fighting Rigondeaux, the other top fighters in and around the super bantamweight division have all avoided getting in the ring with him. Both Leo Santa Cruz and Carl Frampton vacated their belts and moved up to featherweight to avoid fighting the true champion at 122 lbs and will now be facing each other on July 30th in Brooklyn. Because of this, all of Rigondeaux’s opponents since his career defining win against Donaire have been largely nondescript.
One matchup that would be of very high interest would be a showdown against fellow southpaw Vasyl Lomachenko. It would be a fight between two of the most highly decorated amateurs of all time with Lomachenko matching Rigondeaux’s haul with two gold medals himself. In total the pair own four Olympic gold medals, four amateur world championships, and an absurd combined amateur record of 770–13.
Lomachenko moved up to 130 lbs in his last fight, largely due to being avoided himself. But he has stated he can still make the featherweight limit of 126 lbs. Hopefully Rigondeaux is also willing to move up four pounds to seek out bigger fights and the combatants meet in the middle of their two current weight classes. The prospective fight would be the first professional boxing match between two multi-time Olympic champions.
We here at Stiff Jab hope that some of the big names in and around Rigondeaux’s weight eventually decide to test their mettle against the best instead of collecting other belts and calling themselves champions, when in reality they are just paper champions.
Originally published at StiffJab.com.
