Rigondeaux vs. Casimero – fight preview

By Boxing News - 08/14/2021 - Comments

By Chris Williams: Guillermo ‘The Jackal’ Rigondeaux will be looking to make WBO bantamweight champion John Riel Casimero eat his words tonight when the two meet up for their highly anticipated match at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.

Casimero (30-4, 21 KOs) has been giving Rigondeaux lip throughout the promotion, letting him know what he thinks of him with his nonstop trash-talking.

Unlike Nonito Donaire, the mentally tough two-time Olympic gold medalist Rigondeaux (20-1, 13 KOs) has calmly taken the abuse, and it’s made him more determined to take the wild-punching Casimero to school to humiliate him.

The oddsmakers still have the 32-year-old Casimero as their favorite for tonight’s fight, but Rigondeaux is going to show them how they were with their wacky choice.

A year ago, Rigondeaux won the WBA ‘regular’ bantamweight title with a 12 round split decision over Liborio Solis.

Surprisingly, Rigondeaux hasn’t fought since then, so there could be a problem tonight due to his 18 months of inactivity.

Rigondeaux wants to humble Casimero

Though Rigondeaux is coming into tonight’s fight as the underdog, he plans on scalping Casimero and leaving the ring with his WBO 118-lb belt as a trophy of war.

Image: Rigondeaux vs. Casimero - fight preview

In a nutshell, Rigondeaux plans on humbling the loudmouth Casimero and shutting him up once and for all. Aftward, Rigondeaux wants to see if Casimero will show his respect with some groveling after he rips his WBO title from him.

While the 40-year-old Rigondeaux is eight years older than the 32-year-old Casimero, he actually looks like the younger fighter. It’s strange as if Rigondeaux stopped aging when he reached 28.

The talented former two-division world champion Rigondeaux looks the same as twelve years ago when he first turned professional in 2009.

For Casimero, he’s going to need to keep his head together tonight because he cannot fight like a wild man against Rigondeaux without getting taken to school.

Casimero must fight under control

We don’t want to see Casimero kicking Rigondeaux or hitting him with rabbit punches as we from the Filipino slugger in his fight with Luis Alberto Lozarte.

While Casimero has come a long way in his career, he still needs to make sure he doesn’t look control tonight and wind up getting disqualified in the biggest fight of his career against Rigondeaux. Without question, this is the biggest fight of Casimero’s career.

That’s why it’s doubly important that he doesn’t lose his senses completely and start roughing up Rigondeaux and treating the contest like it’s a street fight.

Above all, Casimero has to control himself make sure he’s following the Marquees of Queensbury rules at all times.

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If Casimero starts fouling tonight, hopefully, the referee does the right thing and takes points away rather than letting him hijack the fight by roughing up Rigondeaux to gain an edge.

“Casimero is going to be the third Filipino that I’m going to take down,” said Rigondeaux. “Everyone is going to see what I’m about. I don’t have to tell anyone what’s going to happen now; you’re going to see it all in the ring,” said ‘The Jackal’ Guillermo on what he’s going to be doing against John Riel.

Casimero vs. Rigondeaux – When is the start time? Where or how to watch?

Fans can watch Casimero vs. Rigondeaux on Saturday night, August 14th. The start time is at 10:00 p.m. ET/ 7:00 p.m. PT. Showtime will be televising the Casimero – Rigondeaux fight.

The fight will be taking place at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.

The former three-division world champion Casimero plans to go after Rigondeaux from the opening bell, attacking him with his normal nonstop punching style that he’s employed his entire 14-year professional career.

That style of fighting has served Casimero well, but that was against lesser opposition. Yeah, Casimero has won world titles in three weight classes, but his opposition has been nothing to write home about.

Unfortunately, that’s the norm in this era of boxing, with each division being watered down with multiple world titles.

Casimero won his world titles against these fighters:

  • Pedro Guevara
  • Amnat Ruenroeng
  • Zolani Tete