by David P. Greisman
Junior-featherweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux’s final fight under his deal with promoter Top Rank will be on July 19 against Sod Looknongyantoy, a bout taking place in Macau, China, on a card also featuring Chinese star prospect Zou Shiming.
Rigondeaux’s falling out with Top Rank has been well-chronicled. Rigondeaux’s team feels the promoter hasn’t done enough to market him and his talent. Top Rank feels that Rigondeaux’s style isn’t marketable. And Rigondeaux went from defeating Nonito Donaire on HBO last year to waiting for a second date on that network. Then he got one and topped a reluctant Joseph Agbeko late last year on HBO, a bout that pulled in an incredibly low viewership rating for the network.
“My problem with Rigondeaux is that HBO won’t put him on the air,” Arum told BoxingScene.com on June 6. “So if HBO won’t put him on the air, then I only have one market for him, realistically, and that’s in Asia. So he’s fighting there on the 19th of July, and if he has a good performance, maybe they want him back. Then I’d re-sign him. But I’m not going to re-sign him if HBO won’t put him on and there’s no other market for him.”
And any new contract with Rigondeaux would need to have different minimum paydays, Arum said. There have been no conversations yet about a new contract, he said.
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