Guillermo Rigondeaux is one of the the best pure boxers in the sport of boxing. He’s a two time gold medallist and current WBA super-bantamweight champion. But the Rigondeaux story, is one that would frustrate a saint.
With those accomplishments he still manages to stay unknown to the wider sports public, incredibly.
Let’s rewind back to April 13, 2013 for a minute. This is the night his life was supposed to change for the better. for this talented Cuban boxing phenom.
Rigondeaux had been calling out top five pound for pound fighter at the time Nonito Donaire, who was on a rampage in boxing back then.
Donaire was consistently putting on dominating performances, even earning Fighter of the Year in 2012.
Although Rigondeux was undefeated he came into the fight as the clear underdog on the night. Little did we all know until afterwards, he easily out boxed Donaire to win an unanimous decision.
(Rigondeaux vs Donaire highlights via HBO):
He finally got his career defining fight – he thought.
What should come next for him fans were thinking? Bigger fights, increased purses and a larger push from his promotional company?
The sad fact of the matter is, none of these things happened.
He successfully defended his title however a couple of times after this and then parted ways from his then promoter, Top Rank.
Since then, he has yet to fight on a major network or even get attention from other top boxers around his weight class.
Carl Frampton who just recently defeated Leo Santa Cruz at featherweight, stated he was not interested in a fight with Rigondeaux.
Now as of 2016 considering all that has gone on in his incredibly frustrating career to watch from the outside as a fan, it would be irresponsible to state he always received the short end of the stick.
Don’t you think? Earlier this year there was talk of him fighting the ultra talented Vasyl Lomachenko.
Reportedly the fight fell through due to weight and money disagreements, as tends to happen frequently in the fight business.
But from an athletic point of view at now 35 years old, time is definitely ticking on the final stages of this gifted boxer’s professional career.
Rigondeaux may realize in order to land a big fight he will have to be on the ‘b-side’ of negotiations from here on out, sadly, and he might need to move up to featherweight before his career is out.
The Rigondeaux story is looking more and more like it will be a case of, “What might have been?”.
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