WBO bantamweight champion John Riel Casimero says he’s hoping WBA champion Guillermo ‘The Jackal’ Rigondeaux doesn’t run from him on Saturday night in their headliner match live on SHOWTIME at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
Casimero (30-4, 21 KOs) states that if Rigondeaux (20-1, 13 KOs) chooses to run around the ring, his coach has a good game plan to get to Rigo to knock him out.
It’s unclear whether Casimero, 32, has been watching old videos of Rigondeaux from 2012 and before, as he hasn’t ‘run’ any of his fights in the last nine years of his career, particularly his last three.
Nowadays, the 40-year-old Rigondeaux is a stationary fighter who mostly stands in one place the way Floyd Mayweather Jr did in the last quarter of his career.
In Rigondeaux’s last three fights, he’s stood in the center and traded with his opponents, beating them like a slugger. Rigondeaux is no longer a mover like years ago, and he hasn’t been for many years.
The fact that Casimero has been talking a lot during the build-up to the fight about his worry that Rigondeaux will run from him, it suggests that he hasn’t studied video of his fights in the last eight years of his career.
Whether that’s laziness on Casimero’s part or him being confused is unclear, but it is a little troubling. If you watch any of Rigondeaux’s fights since 2013, you don’t see him running.
Rigondeaux’s last three opponents:
- Liborio Solis – SD 12
- Julio Ceja – TKO 8
- Giovanni Delgado – TKO 1
“Rigondeaux is a good boxer, and this is a good fight, and my advantage is hard work and hard training,” said John Riel Casimero to Fighthub.
“This is it. I’ll show it to the world. I know the moves of Rigondeaux. I know all the punches of Rigondeaux.
One thing about Rigondeaux, all the judges are sleeping because he’s always running, running, running. I said to Rigondeaux, ‘I don’t like the run, run because if you fight me, don’t run,’” said Casimero.
Actually, Rigondeaux’s fighting style is arguably more exciting to watch than Casimero’s, as it involves more precise punches being thrown, and the power is clearly better.
Rigondeaux is a bigger puncher than Casimero, and he doesn’t throw the crude amateurish shots that the Filipino slugger is known for.
“This is a surprise from my coaches. This is my game plan [to use if Rigondeaux ‘runs’]. So let’s go. If he does the same thing, I’m going to surprise everybody. Everybody is going to see a different outcome.
“I don’t know. I’m surprised that I’m the favorite because he’s [Rigondeaux] the one that is the more experienced fighter.
“I’m surprised,” said Casimero in reacting to being told that he’s the oddsmaker’s favorite over Rigondeaux. “Now that Rigondeaux is no longer in his prime, we’re not on the same level at all.
“All my fans want to see me knock him out. I like that. I knock him out, year,” said Casimero. “My plan for my promoter is first Rigondeaux, and then second Donaire and then [Naoya] Inoue,” said Casimero.
Whoever emerges as the winner of Saturday’s fight, they’ve got a good shot of fighting Donaire next.
You can say that Rigondeaux has a better chance of getting the fight with Donaire than Casimero does, though, because Nonito already bailed out on a fight with John Riel due to his trash talking.
Donaire might not be willing to reschedule a fight with Casimero if he feels like he doesn’t want to have to listen to his insults. It may not be an issue because if Rigondeaux beats Casimero on Saturday, it’ll put him in against Donaire next.
Eight years ago, Rigondeaux dominated Donaire, beating him by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision in 2013 when he was signed with Top Rank.