By J Caldwell: Caveat emptor: If you’re not a serious diehard fan of the pugilist sport, then paying to watch Guillermo “El Chacal” Rigondeaux (16-0, 10 KOs) do his thing in the ring might be hazardous to your health.
Conversely, to the average diehard fan of the sport of boxing, what Rigondeaux does in the ring isn’t that hard to understand: Mainly what the Cuban star has mastered in the ring appears to be more along the lines of boxing with a bit too much caution, (aka, a tactician of sort) “the Jackal” understands the sweet science at its purest level.
Nonetheless, this is where the accolades stop and also where you can make a strong argument, (even as a stanch diehard) that Rigondeaux, along with the style of fighter he is, isn’t suitable for mega-fights; that is, until, he at least realize the vast dichotomy between showing up to a major event to do just enough to win a fight and showing up to give his fans something good to talk about.
The only thing good that came out of the fight between himself and Drian Francisco (28-4-1, 22 KOs) was the very idea that Rigondeaux has the abilities to outbox his opponent at will, which was already understood prior to the bout. Thus, it goes without saying, what should have happened on Saturday night against the journeymen fighter; namely, the Cuban southpaw “slickster” should have been more willing to please the crowd by: 1) Trading punches a bit more; and 2) Giving the allusion of at least trying to hurt his opponent. In theory, doing a combination of both would have given casual fans something for their money, along with serving as a great prelude to the main event. On the other hand, not doing any of those things, will certainly turn cheering fans into booing fans, which occurred about mid-way through the bout.
But what about Floyd “Money” Mayweather, or better yet, Bernard “The Alien” Hopkins?
Great questions. What you have to keep in mind about both Mayweather and Hopkins is this: They both started their careers off as boxer-punchers, but slowly overtime morphed into the roles of boxer- counter-punchers. In contrast, the roles that both Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara play inside the ring are totally different. Because they’re both southpaws with extensive amateur backgrounds, the two fighters’ role, thus far, has largely been more along the lines of boxer-movers.
Alas, what we as both diehards and casual fans witnessed Saturday night on the undercard of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Miguel Cotto was a kind of latent selfish act in boxing, one for which involves doing just enough to get the win. The problem with this way of thinking, especially on the undercard of a bitter Mexican Puerto Rican rivalry, is that the promoters shouldn’t have put a Cuban fighter, (which is a different kind of Latino fighter all together) on the undercard of such an event. For example, what both Rigondeaux and Lara (the two Cuban defectors) has seemed to export from the Cuba, an island nation slightly stuck in time, is a certain kind of “throwback” self-preservationist style, a boxing style that, for the most part, hasn’t had that much fan appeal in the causal American marke
Comments are closed.