By Cliff Rold
It wasn’t long ago that one could call him a genuine cult favorite.
Lineal Jr. featherweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (16-0, 10 KO) has never been everyone’s cup of tea. He’s not an offensive minded fighter. His personality comes across to some as stoic, to others stodgy.
It didn’t matter to the Cult of Rigo. They admired the skill and they had a target. As Nonito Donaire rose to 122 lbs. and started winning belts in the class, the Rigondeaux corner got louder. They wanted a showdown.
They got it.
It remains his finest hour. Ignore the final scorecards, two of which were closer than reality. Rigondeaux thoroughly outclassed Donaire, adding the WBO belt to his WBA title. One could make a case for him winning eleven of the twelve rounds. The Cult of Rigo had their moment. The fighter had earned the right to call himself the genuine champion of his class.
Without another immediate target of similar stature, what was next? It turned out the answer was ‘not much.’ Rigondeaux’s next bout, a defense against former bantamweight titlist Joseph Agbeko, was so dull fans could be seen walking out on the fight. It left HBO uninterested in future Rigondeaux business.
That might not seem fair to some. In a competitive sense, it’s not. Winning should have its rewards. In a business sense, fair has nothing to do with it. Rigondeaux has no natural fan base and isn’t a ticket draw. That leaves meeting his monetary wants to the feeling of others.
Rigondeaux wound up on the road twice in 2014. A first round knockout win and an off the floor stoppage victory might have impressed where Agbeko had not. They were largely unseen. In part due to outside the ring issues, he spent most of 2015 on the shelf. He lost both his WBO and WBA belts outside the ring. Ring Magazine stripped him of their recognition (though no one can remove his place as the lineal king of the class).
Some opportunity knocked finally late last year.
A late addition to the Canelo Alvarez-Miguel Cotto card, Rigondeaux made his debut as part of the Roc Nation team. Matched with veteran Drian Francisco, he had his first chance in almost two years to impress a live US audience.
Rigondeaux laid an egg.
Sure, he won every round. It was a terrible viewing experience. He had an opponent who wasn’t in his league and did the minimum amount over ten rounds. Mitigating circumstances could be argued. The fight was taken on short notice by both parties. Rigondeaux was coming off a long layoff. He’s into his mid-30s and has a ton of miles on him from a long amateur career.
None of that matters when one is sitting around waiting for Alvarez-Cotto. What boxing fans saw was the same thing that had the crowd for Agbeko hitting the exits. For the first time, even avowed lovers of Rigondeuax had little to say in his defense. It’s clear how good he is at what he does. The Francisco fight made it very hard to argue against those who don’t give a damn or want to watch it.
And yes, this is a case where size matters. There are some who argue that Rigondeaux is no less exciting than someone like Floyd Mayweather. First of all, that’s not true. Floyd had some fights that could be dull. He even had some fans walk out on his win over Carlos Baldomir. But Floyd had lots of personality, plenty of fights that were good to very good viewing, and could put asses in seats.
And Floyd is a welterweight.
Rigondeaux weighs 122 lbs. In the US market at least, it takes more to get fans invested as the scale gets lighter. A low volume, defensive style in the class of Gomez, Morales, and Barrera just doesn’t put pack them in without a strong dance partner.
So here we are again. Rigondeaux is back off US TV, scheduled to fight this weekend against Liverpool’s James Dickens (21-1, 6 KO) in Liverpool. For the first time since Donaire, Rigondeuax and his most ardent followers have a target again. Now they have to get other people interested.
Carl Frampton says he’d take the fight. The team around the newly unified WBA and IBF titlist doesn’t appear to be interested. If the WBA insists on Rigondeaux as a mandatory challenger, Frampton has another belt to keep his warm and the possibility of a move to featherweight.
That alone might be enough to get the Rigondeaux faithful fired up again. The feeling Donaire was avoiding Rigondeaux (which was a bit absurd considering he fought him a little over a year after entering the class) helped build that into a fight more people wanted to see. Over a million viewers tuned into HBO that night, a good number relative to boxing.
Frampton-Rigondeaux wouldn’t do similar numbers on US TV, but it would attract plenty of fight fans. Love him or hate him, Rigondeaux against a top tier foe is going to get eyes.
That’s what makes this weekend critical. Let’s assume, for now, Rigondeaux works out the visa issues that could, with days to go, postpone or cancel this fight.
US fans might not have live TV to view it but a Rigondeaux result will garner attention. If it sounds watchable, it’s going to bring clicks on YouTube. If it sounds like Francisco…
…people are going to be chatting about how soon a possible Frampton-Leo Santa Cruz at featherweight could be coming. More people than not will probably be talking about that anyways.
But if Rigondeaux can pull off the sort of electric walk through of Dickens that he once did of Willie Casey in Ireland, he at least creates a reminder that he’s out there, that it can be intriguing. Before Francisco, Rigondeaux fans pointed to the battle with Hisashi Amagasa to fight the narrative that their man was boring.
They need another piece of ammo and he needs what fan base he has to beat the drums. It can be fun to be part of a cult following. It’s not fun when the object of that cult isn’t making their case stronger.
Eventually, someone of note is going to take on Rigondeaux again. The impressions he makes each time he steps in the ring could determine how soon that happens.
And how much louder, or quieter, his following will be while he waits.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com