Guillermo Rigondeaux has two immediate goals at 39 years old.
One, the two-time Olympic champion wants to unify 118-pound titles after he moved down from 122 to outpoint Liborio Solis and win a vacant title last month. And two, believe it or not, he wants to move down to 115 to win a belt in that division. He certainly has no problems making 118 even though he fought at 128½ in his loss to Vassiliy Lomachenko.
Call him the incredible shrinking man.
“I put him on the scale even before the last fight,” Ronnie Shields, Rigondeaux’s trainer, said on The PBC Podcast. “He comes into the gym at 121 pounds. So three pounds is nothing. He actually wants to go down to 115 just to win a belt there just to say he did it … and then go back up to 118.
“I told him, at 39 years old, he’s doing the opposite of what everyone else in boxing is doing. Everybody else is going up to fight in different divisions; he’s going down.”
Rigondeaux (20-1, 13 KOs) has won three consecutive fights since Lomachenko forced him to retire after six rounds in December 2017, two by knockout and a split decision over Solis that most people believe should’ve been unanimous.
Shields considers the Lomachenko setback a blip.
“He never should’ve [fought] Lomachenko,” Shields said. “He was just way to small for him. … To put him in that fight was really ridiculous. The powers that be did it and he paid the consequences. At the same time, he came back and now he feels good.
“Even at 39, he’s capable of beating a lot of people out there.”
Especially if he doesn’t try fight like a slugger.
Rigondeaux surprised everyone by trading punches in a wild slugfest against Julio Ceja last June, winning by eighth-round knockout. And then, against Solis, he came out with a similar mindset in the opening round.
That didn’t sit well with Shields, who set him straight after the round. Rigondeaux responded by boxing the rest of the way.
“I tell him, ‘Look, you’re a pure boxer,’” Shields said. “That’s what you have to be. You can punch but, at the same time, defense works for you. Offense takes over everything. So after the first round, he came out and he finally started boxing, started getting his rhythm.
“He took 31 punches in the first round and then he took 33 punches in the other 11 rounds. And that’s the way it should be for a guy like him. … That’s the Rigo who won two gold medals and was the unified champion in the 122-pound division.”