By Scott Gilfoid: Guillermo Rigondeaux took the opportunity to lecture Carl Frampton on Thanksgiving by saying he doesn’t understand how he could be a ducker with the type of fans that he has.
Rigondeaux went on to say that Frampton’s fans deserved that he fight the best so he could prove himself as being a top guy.
Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KOs) wanted to fight Frampton (24-1, 14 KOs) when the two of them were fighting at the same time in the super bantamweight division, but he never took him up on the offer. Frampton and his management didn’t want to fight Rigondeaux, even though he was recognized by many boxing fans as the best fighter in the 122 lb. division. Frampton never took Rigondeaux up on his challenge. Frampton fought at super bantamweight from 2009 to 2016. So, there was a 7-year period of time in which Frampton could have fought Rigondeaux, and yet he didn’t. For that, Rigondeaux has labeled Frampton as a “ducker.”
How can you be a ducker with fans like these? I seriously don’t understand. Fans like these deserved that you fight whoever and risk everything you go to be the best. Just my opinion. #Dec9. ☘️ fans I am coming for you all! Watch me on @boxnationtv drinking as many 🍺 as u want pic.twitter.com/Ah9UO5LnCX
— Guillermo Rigondeaux (@RigoElChacal305) November 23, 2017
When asked if he was referring to Frampton as the “ducker”, Rigondeaux said, “Yes I am.”
I don’t think it’s going to help Rigondeaux by shaming Frampton. I don’t think that’s going towork to get him to fight him. It didn’t work all those other years when Rigondeaux was complaining to the media about Frampton ducking him. I don’t think it’s going to work now.
Frampton moved up in weight to the featherweight division last year in July 2016, and he immediately beat WBA Super World 126 lb. division. The win was a controversial 12 round majority decision. In the Frampton-Santa Cruz rematch, Frampton lost it by a 12 round majority decision last January. Frampton was out of the ring for the next 10 months after that loss until this month when he defeated little known Horacio Garcia by a questionable 10 round decision last Saturday night in Belfast, Northern Ireland. That fight showed how far Frampton has fallen from the fighter he was 3 to 4 years ago when he was beating the likes of Kiko Martinez, Jeremy Parodi and Hugo Fidel Cazares.
Frampton doesn’t plan on moving back down to super bantamweight to fight Rigondeaux. Frampton’s goal is to go after a rematch with Leo Santa Cruz, and fight the eventual winner of the Lee Selby vs. Josh Warrington fight. Frampton also wants to fight WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez. There’s also a possibility of Frampton moving up to super featherweight in the near future once he exhausts all the big fights at 126.
Rigondeaux will be fighting next month against WBO super featherweight champion Vasily Lomachenko (9-1, 7 KOs) on December 9 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
I have a feeling that Rigondeaux will beat Lomachenko. It’s a hunch based on how Rigondeaux looked in his recent win over Moises Flores, who is about the same size and with the same speed as Lomachenko. Rigondeaux picked Flores apart, knocking him out in the 1st round. The fight was later ruled a no contest due to Rigondeaux’s knockout blow coming after the round had ended.