By Gerardo Granados: I asked a friend if he would pay one million notes to Guillermo Rigondeaux to hear the crowd boo him for 12 rounds, but I guess nobody would. Last Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, USA, former WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Guillermo Rigondeaux (16-0, 10 KOs) defeated 33-year-old journeyman Drian Francisco (28-4-1, 22 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision on HBO pay-per-view on the undercard of the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Miguel Cotto card.
After having been inactive since December 2014, and having been stripped of his WBA-WBO belts, and also have stayed over two years away from the main events, Rigondeaux received another chance on the undercard of the biggest boxing event of the year but failed miserably to impress the audience with his win over Francisco.
If you saw the Rigondeaux vs. Francisco fight you know what I mean but if you didn’t see it then I must warn you that you should better save your time and not watch it.
The reactions on the internet were unanimous going from boring to disappointing about Rigondeaux’s performance in the fight. Since the first round the booing appeared and lasted until the tenth and final round. How come Rigondeaux allowed this chance to spoil so badly can’t be defensible even by the boxing purist; the punch stats were unbelievably low for the super bantam division.
Is there a reasonable way to explain why the Chacal performance was so boring or is it that he still believes that he competes on the amateurs and will never be able to do the transition to pro boxing?
Some comments read on twitter stated:
Martin Gallegos @martinGboxing “Crowd booing Rigondeaux, but he´s dominating right now.”
@HBOboxing “RigoElChacal305 puts it on the forefront of your brain. If I come swinging this guy might knock me out.”
Dan Rafael @danrafael “Backing up, backing up, backing up. Over and over and over. #Rigo #Boxing #zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.” “#Rigo landed 72 punches in the entire fight. Francisco only 42. #zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.”
Douglass Fisher @dougiefisher “I´m glad I´m drinking coffee…”
Rich Marotta @boxingrich “You can say I don’t appreciate great boxing or technique all you want but every time I watch Rigo fight I want to shoot myself.”
Graham Houston @fightwriterone “Willie Pep, Willie Pastrano, Miguel Canto among many stylish boxers who weren’t, er, boring.”
@TheFightGuru “I love Rigo and I love his style but I can see why fans think hes boring.”
Lou DiBella @loudibella “I would rather watch paint dry than Rigo. And, yes, he´s very good. So what!”
Lee John Wylie @LeeWylie1 “I am one of Rigo´s biggest advocates. But that was poor to say the least.”
@forever_boxing “No one out there can defend Rigo after tonight.”
The New Testament @sweetboxing “Guillermo Rigondeaux UD10 Drian Francisco (97-93, 100-90, 100-90) ZZzzzzZZzzzZZZzzzzz.”
Mark Thomas @MarkThomasKXNT “In a thoroughly forgettable “fight”, Guillermo Rigondeaux walks past Drian Francisco in 10 long rounds. Unanimous.”
3 Blind Mice Boxing @3bmboxing “Ask the casual fan next to me his thoughts on this fight. His response – what fight? Amen.”
David Greisman @fightingwords2 “How did Rigondeaux not realize how important his performance tonight would be? He´s either delusional or dumb. Highly likely the former.”
Kevin Iole @KevinI “Get rid of this guy please.”
Julio Rodriguez @jrrod02 “KevinI seriously. I paid for a PPV boxing match. Not snooze fest and a [expletive] concert.”
Well I guess we can concur that if Drian Francisco had not put the pressure or had been aggressive then there would not have been any fighting at all. I asked Dan Rafael if this fight was worse than the Titere Vazquez vs Mickey Bey bout, but the reader will be the best judge to decide.
I am so disappointed at Rigondeaux because I thought that he already had understood that this is prize fighting and I think he wasted his last chance to be involved in any major event.
If Chacal didn’t had the boxing skills or physical tools to succeed it would not be so sad to see him waste so much talent by not being able to simply understand that what we the fight fans want is to be entertained.
I am certain that if I lost the faith I had on Rigondeaux to become an entertaining fighter it won’t matter to Rigondeaux at all and he wont to pay attention to my words; but if the TV CEO´s, Promoters and the rest of fight fans simply lose interest in him then his destiny would be sealed on undercards on minor events.
Maybe someone could explain to Rigondeaux that what us the fight fans most like to watch is Takashi Miura vs Francisco Vargas Fight of the Year type of fights. I´m not saying Rigondeaux should do the same but at least Guillermo could try to mimic Roman Chocolatito Gonzalez delightful boxing style. I wish the best luck to Rigondeaux but I am certain that a resurrection now is impossible, do you agree?
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