By Eric Thomas: Two-time Cuban Olympic Gold Medalist Guillermo Rigondeaux (2-0, 2 KO’s) made short work of American Robert Guillen (4-3) on Friday night, stopping him in the 1st round at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Rigondeaux, 28, a super bantamweight prospect, timed a punch from Guillen, hitting him with a perfect left hook to the body late in the 1st round to send Guillen down on the canvas. Guillen laid on the canvas in pain afterwards and was unable to get up from the knockdown. Referee Kenny Bayless then called a halt to the bout at 2:57 of the 1st.
Rigondeaux, a counter puncher by nature, had to do most of the attacking in the 1st because Guillen looked either unwilling or unable to take the fight to him. Rigondeaux did an admirable job going after Guillen, hitting him with a lot of straight left hands to the head.
Not much of one to throw a jab, Rigondeaux focused more on throwing power punches and in looking for rare opportunities to counter Guillen’s shots. Near the end of the round, Guillen connected with a couple of good right hands, which Rigondeaux took without too much of a problem.
It looked as if Rigondeaux let Guillen hit him in order to set him up with a counter shot, because on the third attempt that Guillen made to land a right hand, Rigondeaux launched a powerful left hand to the body just as Guillen began to throw an over-hand right. Rigondeaux’s punch landed a fraction of a second before Guillen’s shot, knocking the American to the canvas in a slightly delayed reaction.
As good as the win is, Rigondeaux needs to be put in with better fighters than the likes of Guillen. Rigondeaux is too old and has far too much experience to be matched so softly. It’s wasting his time and needs to be moved up quicker if they want to take full advantage of his talents. If he was 21, I’d have no problems with Rigondeaux continuing to fight stiffs for another 20 fights like most fighters unfortunately have a habit of doing, but he’s too old for this kind of thing and is in danger wasting his career.
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Also on the same card, unbeaten light middleweight prospect Yudel Johnson (2-0, 1 KO’s) put in a masterful performance in defeating American Justin Paulo (1-1) by a four round unanimous decision. The final judges’ were 40-36, 40-36 and 40-36. Johnson, 28, a former Silver Medalist for the Cuban National team in the 2004 Olympics, showed a lot of boxing ability in winning a one-sided four round decision on the same card that two other former Cuban amateur starts Erislandy Lara and Guillermo Rigondeaux also fought.
Besides the quick ending of Rigondeauz’s fight, Johnson may have showed the most skills of the three Cuban athletes on Friday night. His jab, combinations and ability to get out of the way of punches was truly exceptional and set him apart from Rigondeaux and Lara, both of whom seemed much more hittable.
Johnson, a southpaw, started off a bit too fast in the opening round, throwing massive amounts of punches in an effort to get his over-matched opponent Paulo out of there as quickly as possible. Not much of a puncher, Johnson didn’t succeed in hurting Paulo or knocking him down.
Indeed, Johnson wasted many of his shots because a good portion of them missed when he was throwing flurries while unloading on a trapped Paulo who stood with his back against the ropes during much of the round. Johnson seemed to have no respect for Paulo in the early going and was firing off punch after punch without worrying about getting clipped by any of Paulo’s shots.
One of the problems that Paulo had was that he didn’t have much of a left hand and seemed to use mostly his right for everything he threw. Johnson no doubt picked up on this quickly and unloaded on him with massive amounts of punches making sure to lean away from Paulo’s rare right hand shots.
In the 2nd round, Johnson swarmed Paulo, getting in close to him and throwing lots of short punches. While it was effective, Johnson was smothering his own power by standing too close to him while punching. Johnson needed to take advantage of his height and focus more on bombing Paulo from long distance.
By the end of the round, Paulo’s nose was bleeding from one of the many punches he had been hit with during Johnson’s prolonged flurry during the round. Johnson made an adjustment late in the round, moving to the outside and using his reach to jab and pick Paulo off with straight left hands.
This is where Johnson began to show extraordinary talent. In the 3rd and 4th rounds, Johnson settled down, picking his spots to throw his shots and not going overboard with his flurries like he did in the 1st and 2nd rounds. Johnson picked Paulo apart in both rounds, hitting him with precise left hands and right hooks and rarely missing a punch during these rounds. At the end of the fight, Paulo had dark bruises under both eyes and he looked pretty well beaten up.
Overall, it was a good fight for Johnson. He showed a lot of different looks in the fight and looked superb on defense as well. He’s going to need to work his power game, though, because in dealing with big punchers like Alfredo Angulo and Kermit Cintron, boxing ability alone may not be enough for Johnson to come out ahead with those kinds of fighters.