You win an Olympic gold medal in Sydney in 2000, and another in Athens four years later. So, what do you do with the actual medals? Straight forward stuff really. Melt them down and give your teeth a golden glimmer. Well maybe not every athlete, but that’s what Guillermo Rigondeaux says he has done with his.
If that was the most dramatic aspect of Rigondeaux’s story, he’d be a happy man. But there are much darker times he has suffered through to get to this point. A point where, on Saturday night, in Madison Square Garden, he will face off against Vasyl Lomachenko. The WBO Junior Lightweight title holder from Ukraine.
With Lomachenko, you only need to allow your eyes to scan the pre-fight odds. There is a consistent trend. And that is that he will win. That his Cuban opponent is the underdog will make little difference to the Ukrainian. He is smart enough to know what he is up against. But Rigondeaux could cause quite the upset. It’s quite likely this is going to be close. Really close.
A modest home life, Rigondeaux captured the imagination of Fidel Castro who took a shine to the 37-year-old southpaw. That shine though, would lessen to the point of extinction.
In the midst of the 2007 PanAm Championships in Brazil, he endeavoured to engineer a defection to the United States. The attempt failed, and exclusion from Cuba’s national squad followed. Two years later he tried again. Along with a large group of compatriots, crammed into a speed boat, he was smuggled into Mexico.
This break for freedom cost him. It cost him his relationship with his father and it cost him the ability to return home to bury his mother. His wife and two sons remain behind. If Rigondeaux has nothing to prove in terms of ambition and focus, he is equally matched in the talent department.
A supreme counter-puncher and a natural athlete, Rigondeaux has amassed a profound level of experience. In 475 amateur bouts he lost on only 12 occasions. He is unbeaten as a professional. And it is by no means beyond the realms of possibility, that is a statistic that won’t be altered this weekend.
This is a fight of pedigree. If Rigondeaux is a fighter of substance and innate ability, he has a kindred spirit in Lomachenko. Lomachenko has speed and agility and genuine power in his connections, but he is also someone who learns when things go wrong.
Rather then moaning about judge’s scorecards and miscarriages of justice when he lost his only professional fight to Orlando Salido in Texas in 2014, he was humble and pragmatic in defeat. Despite landing more punches then his Mexican opponent, despite his opponent not making weight and despite some questionable tactics from Salido – Lomachenko focused in on himself.
He called the decision fair and he took responsibility for some of the tactical decisions he took upon himself in the fight. In other words, self-pity was of no interest to him. He has grown since and he is a formidable fighter.
Tighten your seatbelts for this on Saturday night. It’s quite possible this will be one of the finest fights you see this year.
