Rigondeaux's Trainer Wants Lomachenko Fight at Catch-Weight

By Ben Jacobs

Pedro Diaz and his Mundo Boxing team are hard at work at their Miami base preparing Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KOs) for his bout with Moises Flores (25-0, 17 KOs) on February 25 for the WBA Super Bantamweight world title.  The clash in Texas between two unbeaten fighters will be the Cuban’s first since he stopped James ‘Jazza’ Dickens in two rounds last July in Cardiff, Wales.  Díaz is of the belief that Flores could prove to be the toughest challenge yet for the 36-year-old.
“For me, Moisés Flores is the most dangerous fight of Rigondeaux’s career, more dangerous than Nonito Donaire,” Pedro said in a conversation with BoxingScene.com.

“He’s dangerous because he is 5ft 9in, he’s a Mexican that comes forward and he’s unbeaten.  I do believe a lot of people will buy the pay-per-view to see this fight and Miguel Cotto also has his fight.”

Undoubtedly one of the most talented fighters in the entire sport, Rigondeaux’s inactivity over the past few years has been lamented by hardcore fans who appreciate the skills which he displays.

“Regarding Rigondeaux’s career, we’d need hours to talk about it,” Díaz exclaimed. 

“Rigondeaux has had two stages in his career, before and after the Donaire fight.  Before it everyone thought he would lose but when he won, in the manner that he did, he humiliated Donaire, a lot of journalists gave a false image of him, saying that he was just a runner. 

“At that time Rigondeaux was the only undefeated boxer who hadn’t fought a fighter with a negative record, and he had never lost a round.  He either won by knockout or unanimous decision.  That is what you call quality.”

Díaz went on to discuss how he feels that disrespectful comments from certain people in the sport have had a detrimental effect on the southpaw’s career in terms of his inactivity.

“I believe that the negative talk about Rigondeaux’s style hurt his career.  He is ready to fight anyone at 126lbs.  People have been talking about Lomachenko fighting Rigondeaux but he’s not a 126lbs fighter.  He could come down four pounds and Rigondeaux could go up four pounds and they can fight.  Let their fists do the talking. 

“I’m a trainer who doesn’t like to speak too much, I respect all fighters and all trainers.  But at the moment Rigondeaux is one of the three most complete fighters in the world, along with Floyd Mayweather and Andre Ward.  You can have a bad fight like Ward did with Kovalev but that doesn’t take any credit away from him.”