What happened to Rigondeaux?

[DannyNL]

After he beat Donaire he was being groomed as the next p4p king. HBO were pushing him hard, promoting him as the ring genius he is, and suddenly just said "fuck him", dropped his contract and now we hardly hear about him, even though he's still undefeated and one of the best talents in boxing today, perhaps THE best.
They kicked him to the curb and focused all their attention on Chocolatito and Lomachenko, two other guys who can't speak English.

Was it because Rigo was too boring? Do Cuban fighters not draw interest like a European or South American fighter will? Did they decide he was just too old to invest in?

 

[ctrlaltdelete]

I thought Rigo was super talented, but boring most of the time. He did well against Nonito though.

 

[Social Distance Warrior]

Boring as hell

When on the prime time stage he decided to coast to a ud rather than put on a show...

People will blame Bob arum for not promoting him effectively, but in reality rigondeaux is his own worst enemy.

He has zero charisma,

And his style of fighting isn't fan friendly

 

[hiphopnazi]

Not fan friendly but I watch when given the chance.

 

[Mr2urbo]

All of the above plus he outprices himself and not a lot fighters (even to this day) are too eager to fight him

 

[PUO3]

People generally dont like his style, fighters dont want to fight him, and he doesnt speak English.

 

[MMACroatia]

Lomachenko speaks English.

 

[LangfordBarrow]

People generally dont like his style, fighters dont want to fight him, and he doesnt speak English.

The trifecta of doom....

 

[ironfist05]

Rigo is the ultimate combination of career murder and career suicide. He's not as boring as a lot of detractors will say, but at the same time, he doesn't seem to get that he isn't drawing viewers in and nobody wants to fight him if they can fight each other for 3X the money and a lesser chance of defeat.

Probably the fighter that I will always think of when I think "oh he could have been great." At his best, there aren't a hole lot of guys I would pick over him around his division.

 

[borntoloseNOT]

His career got wasted, and sure he takes some blame, but at the end of day he was avoided, and instead of being cherished because he was the best, he was treated like a black eye on the sport.

I get he doesn't fight the way the general public wants, big deal assholes, he's the gold standard of ammie boxing, and brought a great deal of knowledge and expertise to the main stage, and everyone shit on it.

 

[KantoTerror]

All of the above plus he outprices himself and not a lot fighters (even to this day) are too eager to fight him

This...he wants big money for his boring style...gone are the days you can ask for big paydays just because you're undefeated.

 

[borntoloseNOT]

His career got wasted, and sure he takes some blame, but at the end of day he was avoided, and instead of being cherished because he was the best, he was treated like a black eye on the sport.

I get he doesn't fight the way the general public wants, big deal assholes, he's the gold standard of ammie boxing, and brought a great deal of knowledge and expertise to the main stage, and everyone shit on it.

I blame myself just as much as anyone else. If I'd known things were turning out this way, I'd have paid a little more attn while I could have.

It's not that I think he was boring. I paid for every Mayweather fight because what he did was art to my eyes, Id have been willing to shell for Rigo as well.

It's that his opponents presented zero danger to Rigo's zero, and that got me every time. Wondering what he'd look like against someone good, because the fights he was in weren't dangerous at all.

Career wise, look at another name we know in Loma for contrast. With Loma, we might have Mikey to look forward to. Some other guys present some interesting looks on paper, too. Plus Loma treats the fight like it is, a mismatch every time, so it is exciting in the brutal taking of scalps one by one aspect.

With Rigo, there was Nonito for a while, then he looked like a novice when they did fight, and then looked even more like a done fighter after that, and everyone has run since. I guess his style repulsed and horrified the public and his comp, lol but it killed his career being good at his craft.

 

[GloryOfIran]

People get tired of waiting years for interesting fights to happen. If he fades into obscurity so be it.

 

[DannyNL]

I wonder if they looked at his age and the amount of times he's been knocked down and thought maybe he wasn't a great investment. Cordoba dropped him, Donaire dropped him, Amagasa dropped him twice. Not a terrible amount but still a lot for a guy who's supposed to be a "glitch in the matrix" type of defensive wizard.

 

[ctrlaltdelete]

Speaking of talented southpaws who are defensive wizards, how about Tevin Farmer? He's slick as hell and exciting to watch.