Rigondeaux expected to sign with new promoter by next week

By Boxing News - 07/21/2014 - Comments

By Chris Williams: Now that he’s said his goodbyes to Top Rank following his contract-ending 1st round knockout of Sod Kokietgym last Saturday night at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort in Macao, China, WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Rigondeaux (14-0, 9 KOs) is said to be on the verge of signing with a new promoter that can take his career to the next level.

Rigondeaux was unable to showcase his talent during his time with Top Rank because he only fought one big named opponent during the entire time he was with them in whipping their star Nonito Donaire. After that one fight, Rigondeaux was in no man’s land in terms of being matched up with interesting opposition. He got two fights after battered Donaire and that was against a past his best Joseph Agebeko and Kokietgym.

“They’re looking at three promoters; 2 American and 1 European,” ESPN’s Brian Campbell said. “They’d like to have a deal in the next 7 days and would like to have Rigondeaux back fighting by September.”

If Rigondeaux signs with a European promoter then it’s possible that U.S fans won’t be seeing too many more of his fights, because most European fights aren’t televised in the U.S. The obvious American promoter that Rigondeaux is likely looking at is Golden Boy Promotions. They’re a lot leaner than they were before when they had a ton of fighters, but they still have a decent stable.

If Rigondeaux signs with them, he’ll have his fights shown on Showtime, as long as the Showtime vice president of sports Stephen Espinoza green lights it. Rigondeaux is too good of a fighter for Showtime not put him on their network.

It’s still hard to believe that HBO decided to not televise Rigondeaux’s last fight against Kokietgym, because it was easily the best fight on the entire empty card despite the fight being a mismatch. That was sad matchmaking by Top Rank to set Rigondeaux up with a fighter like that.



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