By Eric Thomas: Two-time Olympic Gold Medalist from Cuba Guillermo Rigondeaux (5-0, 4 KO’s) has pulled out of this Saturday’s fight with Reynaldo Lopez, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Rigondeaux, a junior featherweight, injured his back and can’t make the fight. This is bad news, because Rigondeaux, a huge boxing talent, would have gotten some good visibility for this fight because his bout with Lopez was to take place on the undercard of the clash between WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto vs. Carlos Quintana at the BankAtlantic Center, in Sunrise, Florida.
Rigondeaux apparently has a sore back from sparring with a welterweight, Rafael says. But the shocking news is that Rigondeaux has decided to change trainers. He’s currently trained by the well respected Freddie Roach at the Wild Card gym, in Los Angeles, California. Few boxers ever leave Roach. Indeed, many fighters want to be trained by Roach, who also trains boxing stars Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan, among many others.
The word is that Rigondeaux felt that he wasn’t getting enough face time with Roach, and that he didn’t like having to spar with bigger fighters like 150 pounders, and also thought there were too many other fighters in the gym with him. Rafael says that Roach wasn’t pleased with Rigondeaux’s conditioning, and didn’t want him to fight this Saturday night because of it.
It’s unknown how many fighters that Roach is currently training. The Wild Card Gym is popular destination for fighters and the media, largely because of Roach’s success with his number #1 fighter Manny Pacquiao. Compared to other trainers, who have relatively few fighters to train, Roach is someone that juggles different fighters because of his popularity as a trainer. It’s something that fighters have to deal with when getting the valuable training from Roach. But what makes Roach so good is that he’s great at dissecting flaws in his own fighters, working on fixing them and then picking apart the flaws in then opponents of his fighters. He’s very good at that, and he doesn’t waste a lot of time.
Rigondeaux will be looking for a new trainer in Florida, his home and will hopefully be getting someone to replace Roach soon. Rigondeaux is one of the best contenders in the junior featherweight division. He’s currently ranked number #7 by the World Boxing Association. Despite having fought only five times, you can’t call him a prospect due to his extensive amateur experience. However, 29, he needs to speed up his progress because he probably doesn’t have a lot more time to make his mark.
Comments are closed.