By Jim Dower: Former WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux will be emerging from a one-year layoff to fight against an opponent still to be determined next month in January. The two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist Rigondeaux (17-1, 11 KOs) hasn’t fought since his 6th round injury stoppage loss to former World Boxing Organization super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko on December 9, 2017.
Rigondeaux’s fight in January will be back at super bantamweight. He was too small to be fighting at super featherweight in his last fight against Lomachenko.
The possible dates for Rigondeaux’s next fight are as follows:
– January 13 – on Jose Uzcategui vs. Caleb Plant card on FOX Sports 1
– January 19 – on Manny Pacquiao vs. Adrien Broner card on Showtime PPV
– January 26 – on Keith Thurman vs. Josesito Lopez on FOX
It was a bad idea from the moment the fight was put together for Rigondeaux to move up two weight divisions to fight the much larger, and heavier Lomachenko. Rigondeaux was clearly asking too much of himself to move up that much weight without the courtesy of a catchweight to help make the fight fair. It worked out well for Lomachenko that he got to fight a guy two divisions smaller than him in Rigondeaux. Lomachenko obviously wouldn’t put himself in that same position. Lomachenko isn’t about to move up even one division to fight at 140, let alone two weight classes to fight at 147.
What Rigondeaux did in moving up in weight to face Lomachenko was courageous to the extreme, but it was also foolhardy. You only make a move like that if you’re pretty sure that you’re going to succeed. It’s doubtful that Rigondeaux ever truly believed that he had a chance of beating Lomachenko. On paper, Lomachenko vs. Rigondeaux was a good match-up. It was a fight between a couple of two-time Olympic gold medalists. In reality though, the weight and height difference between the two fighters was too vast for Rigondeaux.
The 38-year-old Rigondeaux, who some boxing fans feel is older than that, recently inked a contract with Premier Boxing Champion head guy Al Haymon. Signing with PBC will likely keep Rigondeaux busy, as long as he doesn’t continue to disappear for a year at a time. Rigondeaux had been a busy fighter through the first five years of his pro career. It wasn’t until 2015 that Rigondeaux began fighting infrequently, averaging just one fight per year. Now that Rigondeaux has signed with Haymon, there’s a good chance that he’ll be a lot busier with his boxing career.
Whether Rigondeaux has enough youth left to compete with the top fighters at super bantamweight is the question. Rigondeaux’s last fight against Lomachenko showed clearly that he’s much too small to be fighting at super featherweight. But Rigondeaux might be too small to fight at super bantamweight as well. Two of the champions in the 122 lb division, Emanuel Navarrete and Rey Vargas, are both 5’7″, and a lot bigger than the 5’4″ Rigondeaux. They’re not just a lot taller than Rigondeaux.