By Chris Williams: WBO/WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (13-0, 8 KO’s) enjoyed poking fun at the expense of Nonito Donaire last night following Rigondeaux’s easy 12 round unanimous decision win over 33-year-old Joseph Agbeko (29-5, 22 KO’s) at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.
In being interview by HBO’s Max Kellerman after the fight, Rigondeaux said he’s willing give Donaire another beating if he wants one.
Rigondeaux said “Nonito, poor man. He’s traumatized after the beating I gave him. If he wants another beating, tell him to come and get it. I’ll give him another one.”
Last April, Rigondeaux gave Donaire a one-sided whipping in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision. Donaire looked helpless and out of his league for 12 rounds, and it wasn’t much of a fight despite all the hype that went into the build up for it. In the months after the fight, Rigondeaux was open go giving Donaire a chance to avenge his loss, but instead Donaire chose to fight 37-year-old Vic Darchinyan, a fighter who Donaire had already knocked out many years ago.
It doesn’t look like Rigondeaux will get another chance at whipping Donaire again, because he’s injured from his last fight against Vic Darchinyan, and that injury, a cracked orbital bone, will keep him out of the ring until possibly mid-2014. In the meantime, Rigondeaux’s promoter Bob Arum wants him to fight the winner of the Orlando Salido vs. Vasyl Lomachenko fight.
Those guys are featherweights, so Rigondeaux would have to move up in weight and face a heavier opponent for that fight to happen. As bad as Lomachenko looked in his first pro fight, I think Rigondeaux would clown Lomachenko. He’s too slow, and he doesn’t throw enough punches to compete against Lomachenko. We already saw what happened with Salido when he fought an opponent with good hand speed in his loss to Mikey Garcia. It would be much worse against Rigondeaux, because he’s a lot faster than Mikey.
Last night, Rigondeaux dominated Agbeko on the score cards, beating him by the following scores: 120-108, 120-108, 1209-108.
Donaire needs to at least try and avenge his loss to Rigondeaux, but Arum is angling Donaire to fight for a world title at featherweight against WBA champion Nicholas Walters, who is arguably the weakest link among the four featherweight champions. Putting Donaire in with the other featherweight champions Jhonny Gonzalez, Evgeny Gradovich or Orlando Salido would likely end badly for Donaire with him getting knocked out. At least with Walters, Donaire has a chance of winning the fight and becoming the WBA paper champion.
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