By Chris Williams: WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (12-0, 8 KO’s) doesn’t plan on changing his fighting style to look more entertaining for his fight this Saturday night against Joseph Agbeko (29-4, 22 KO’s) at the Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.
After his victory over Noniton Donaire last April, Rigondeaux’s promoter Bob Arum said it would be hard to get him fights on HBObecause of his less than crowd-pleasing fighting style had turne off some of the HBO executives. But Rigondeaux doesn’t want to change the way he fights to become a slugger that gets hit a lot like some other fighters do, because that’s not who he is. Rigondeaux has good power, but he doesn’t want get in the trenches with his opponents for primitive fights.
Rigondeaux said via ESPN “I have never felt any pressure to change my style, since I know true boxing fans who appreciate the sport understand my style, Boxing is a game of hit and don’t get hit.”
Rigondeaux shouldn’t have to change his fighting style in order to have his fights televised by HBO. If Floyd Mayweather Jr’s hit and not get hit fighting style was good enough to have his fights televised by HBO, why shouldn’t Rigondeaux’s? It’s about winning and not getting hit, and Rigondeux does both of those things quite well.
Rigondeaux’s opponent for this Saturday Joseph Agbeko is a limited fighter with the exact type of slugging style that HBO probably likes. But that’s not going to help him against Rigondeaux. The only way that Agbeko will have a chance to win this fight is if Rigondeaux stands in one place an drops his gloves to let him land shots. Even if Rigondeaux were to stand in one place for as long as he was in there, I still don’t think Agbeko could win this fight because Rigondeaux is too good of a puncher and way too good defensively. He has the option of beating Agbeko with ease on the move or standing in one place and knocking him out with a body shot. That’s how good Rigondeaux is.
Agebeko is coming into this fight not in the best of shape in terms of his career. He’s lost 3 out of his last 5 fights, and he’s not been active since 2011. He didn’t fight at all in 2012, and he’s only had one fight in 2013. Two of Agbeko’s defeats came against Abner Mares by 12 round decision losses. It’s going to be interesting to see what Rigondeaux can do against Agbeko to see if he can do a better job beating him than Mares did. It’s not a question of whether Rigondeaux will win, but rather in what form and how easily.
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