Guillermo Rigondeaux and Yuriorkis Gamboa to share bill for first time

Rigondeaux and Gamboa set to appear on same Miami card for first time

Two of Cuba’s most recognizable modern-era fighters will appear on the same professional card for the first time when Guillermo Rigondeaux and Yuriorkis Gamboa are scheduled to compete on a May 2 show in Miami.

The event, billed as “Havana Heat,” will take place at the James L. Knight Center, with both fighters set for separate bouts. Opponents for each have not yet been announced.

Rigondeaux, 45, enters with a record of 23-3 (16 KOs). A two-time Olympic gold medalist, he won titles at junior featherweight and later picked up a secondary belt at bantamweight. His most recent outing came in November 2024, when he stopped Dannis Aguero Arias in under two minutes following a lengthy layoff.

Gamboa, 44, holds a 30-5 (18 KOs) record. Also an Olympic gold medalist, he captured titles at featherweight during his peak years and later moved up in weight. He has not fought since a fifth-round stoppage loss to Isaac Cruz in 2022.

Both fighters emerged from the same Cuban amateur system and turned professional within a few years of each other, but their careers moved along separate weight paths and they never shared a professional event during their prime years.

They are now set to appear on the same bill in Miami, a city with a strong Cuban boxing following, with further fight details expected to be confirmed in the coming weeks.

While both men are well past their physical primes, their technical foundations remain world-class. Rigondeaux proved in his last fight against Arias that his power and timing are still sharp enough to end things early.

This event is a hyper-local play. Miami is one of the few places on earth where the name “El Chacal” or “The Cyclone of Guantánamo” still creates enough interest to sell tickets at the James L. Knight Center. It’s less about a career transmutation and more about one last payday in front of a crowd that remembers who they used to be.