Donaire: Rigondeaux isn’t worth fighting

By Boxing News - 11/16/2012 - Comments

Image: Donaire: Rigondeaux isn't worth fightingBy Chris Williams: Despite WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KO’s) holding down a world title and being considered one of the best fighters at super bantamweight by hardcore boxing fans it’s still enough to impress WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (30-1, 19 KO’s) in being excited about fighting him. Donaire doesn’t feel like Rigondeaux has earned the right to fight him even though he’s a world champion and a two-time former Olympic gold medalist. That’s not enough.

Donaire said to the thekoncretejungle.com “In my opinion, I don’t feel he’s worth it to fight…he needs to do more.”

Donaire went on to say that the fight that he wants, after he takes care of little Jorce Arce in their fight on December 15th, is WBC super bantamweight champion Abner Mares. Donaire says he’s excited about that fight because Mares has done a lot since turning pro.

It’s hard to argue against Mares having done more as a pro then Rigondeaux, but then again that’s because he’s been with a different promoter in Golden Boy Promotions and was put in the Showtime bantamweight tournament. Had Bob Arum of Top Rank put Rigondeaux in the bantamweight tournament then we would have seen Rigondeaux tested against the likes of Joseph Agbeko, Yonnihy Perez, and Vic Darchinyan.

Not having Rigondeaux take part in that tournament was a huge blunder because that tournament would have potentially put him where Mares is now, a well known fighter. Mares has wins over Darchinyan, Agbeko and Anselmo Moreno. In contrast, Rigondeaux has been kind of kept in the slow lane despite being with Top Rank. His biggest fight thus far was against Rico Ramos.

Rigondeaux does have a fight against Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym on December 15th on the undercard of Donaire’s mismatch against Arce at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. However, that’s not a fight that will do much for Rigondeaux compared to the fights that Mares has had.



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