Rigondeaux Withdraws Appeal, Accepts WBO Decision

By Jake Donovan

Guillermo Rigondeaux is still the recognized World super bantamweight champion. As of Tuesday, however, he has conceded the good fight to retain at least one alphabet belt.

The World Boxing Organization (WBO) confirmed on Tuesday that Rigondeaux is no longer appealing the decision to derecognize his title status. The unbeaten southpaw from Cuba – who now fights out of Miami – was stripped of his belt in late October due to failure to defend in a timely fashion and versus a mandatory challenger.

After a month of battling it out with the Puerto Rico-based sanctioning body, Rigondeaux’ legal advisers decided to no longer challenge said ruling.

“The Appeal is dismissed upon request of the petitioning party,” noted Alberto Rodriguez, who heads the WBO Complaint and Grievance Committe. “The October 26, 2015 determination of the World Championship Committee is sustained.

Rigondeaux – represented in this particular case by noted attorney Pat English – formally petitioned the decision on November 9, two weeks after he was initially stripped of his WBO title. His team contended that plans for a fight were in fact in place, having ultimately resurfaced on the November 21 undercard of an HBO Pay-Per-View event headlined by Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’ World middleweight championship winning effort over Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas.

However, the bout came against Drian Francisco, an opponent not ranked in the WBO Top 15. The fight was taken as means to get Rigondeaux back into the ring, as he claimed a 10-round decision to run his record to 16-0 (10KOs).

Earlier that day, his legal team filed for a second extension to have its case heard. The first such matter came on November 17, when a teleconference with the purpose of Team Rigondeaux providing additional information was instead met with a request for more time.

On the day of his fight with Francisco, counsel for Rigondeaux asked to have said period extended to December 4. Rather than use the time to further strengthen his case, his legal team instead informed the WBO that “after consulting Guillermo, we intend to withdraw our appeal.

“It was never our contention that the WBO violated any of its rules. Rather, we were requesting that the WBO exercise its discretion not to adopt the Championship Committee recommendation in light of the circumstances which were discovered and which are set forth in my letter of November 9, 2015. Those circumstances primarily involved the WBA and not the WBO.

“While we still request that the President, in his discretion, not adopt the Recommendation of the Championship Committee, we do not believe that the exercise of discretion is an appealable issue and thus, this withdrawal.”

Rigondeaux still carries recognition as the lineal super bantamweight champion, but in an alphabet sense is limited these days to WBA Champion in Recess.

As for the WBO title, the vacancy could be filled as early as this weekend. A decision has yet to be made whether or not to sanction a December 11 clash between Cesar Juarez and Nonito Donaire – its top two contenders – for the available strap. Such a ruling is expected at some point this week, though the fight presents the perfect scenario – the top two rated fighters contending for a belt in the WBO’s home base of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Whatever comes of that decision, the book on Rigondeaux’ case is officially closed.

“This Committee also concludes WBO President Valcarcel may no longer revise his determination to adopt the recommendation of the October 26, 2015 WBO World Championship Committee Resolution,” notes Rodriguez. “This Decision is the Final Action of the WBO Complaint and Grievance Committee.”

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox