By Jason Kim: WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (9-0, 7 KO’s) will be making his first defense of his title against non-top 15 ranked Teon Kennedy (17-1-2, 7 KO’s) on June 9th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Rigondeaux, 31, won the World Boxing Association title last January with a 6th round TKO win over champion Rico Ramos in a very easy win for Rigondeaux.

Rigondeaux, a two time Olympic gold medalist for Cuba, was hoping to get a unification bout against WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire, but he’s shown absolutely no interest in fighting Rigondeaux and instead is looking at arguably softer targets like Cristian Mijares next followed by Jorge Arce. Rigondeaux will have to be content slowly building up his name the long and slow hard way by defending his strap over and over again to impress boxing fans.

Kennedy, 25, is a high volume puncher with little power or defensive skills. He’s very easy to hit and really hasn’t fought anyone even close to being as good as Rigondeaux. Kennedy was beaten last year in August by Alejandro Lopez in a brawl. Kennedy fought someone with better power and a better work rate than him and he ended up getting out-boxed and losing the fight. Kennedy is still a decent fighter, but just not top 15 worthy.

Rigondeaux will likely do what he always does by looking to throw deadly counter shots to the body and head. Rigondeaux is an excellent body puncher and he tends to score a lot of knockdowns with left hands to the body. He doesn’t use his right hand very much, and that’s an area that Rigondeaux really needs to work on because against better fighters, he’s going to need more of a balance in his offense.

Kennedy will give Rigondeaux countless opportunities to land his counter shots due to Kennedy’s nearly nonstop punching. I don’t expect this fight to last long because Kennedy will get hit with a big counter shot that he doesn’t see coming and will get taken out.