By Elisinio Castillo
As previously reported, Guillermo Rigondeaux was stripped of his super bantamweight world championship by the World Boxing Organization (WBO) at their ongoing yearly convention in Florida.
The two-time Olympic gold medal winner has been inactive for nearly a year. Just weeks ago, the WBO's Championships Committee had alerted Rigondeaux (15-0, 10 KOs) and his promoter, Caribe Promotions, of the possibility of being stripped due to a long period of inactivity.
Rigondeaux, who still holds the "super" title of World Boxing Association (WBA), last defended his belts on December 31 when he defeated Japan's Hisashi Amagasa in Osaka.
There was a long period where Rigondeaux and Caribe fought against ex-manager Gary Hyde. That relationship came to an end on September 15th.
"We complied with the requirement that we were asked to do, which was to give an explanation for the period of time that we've gone without a fight,'' said Boris Arencibia, president of Caribe, to George Ebro.
"In a long letter, we explained the negative [reactions] by other champions [to face Rigo], the slights against our boxer, the bureaucracy and politics of boxing that does not help the fighters, but we were crudely ignored."
According to Arencibia, a possible agreement with manager/adviser Al Haymon, who controls potential opponents such as Gary Russell Jr., Leo Santa Cruz, Jesus Cuellar, Abner Mares and Carl Frampton - collapsed just days ago.
The promoter maintains that Rigondeaux will return before the end of the year.
"We will go all out against the WBO and we are considering a lawsuit,'' said Arencibia. "The WBO never supported us to find a mandatory defense, never bothered to tell the other opponents to stand in a ring before Rigo. Their punishment is baseless."
