Just when it got fun to watch Guillermo Rigondeaux …
Rigondeaux’s trainer, Ronnie Shields, told BoxingScene.com that he’d like his 39-year-old protégé to box more against Liborio Solis on Saturday than he did in a wild knockout victory over Julio Ceja in his most-recent fight.
Rigondeaux, known his entire career for his sublime skills, took many hard shots against Ceja but stopped him with a single straight left in Round 8.
“That was his own thing,” Shields told BoxingScene. “He did that himself. And I kind of got on him in the corner. ‘That’s not the way I trained you for this fight. I don’t know what you’re trying to prove.’ But he told me afterwards, ‘I saw something that, you know, I’d let him get close and then I figured if I can hit him, I can hurt him.’ That did happen, but I didn’t like him taking shots the way he was taking them to prove something.
“I told him he’s too old to prove anything. Just be himself and box and do the things that got him to where he’s at right now. So, he said, ‘I understand. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.’ ”
Shields went on: “I thought he was trying to prove something to people. ‘Oh, I could take a punch.’ I told him, ‘You don’t have to do that. Be yourself! Forget what people say. I don’t care. I want you to move around the ring. I want you to box. You’re gonna catch up to the guy and you’re gonna hit him with something and it’s gonna be over. You’ve got that ability to do that.’”
Rigondeaux (19-1, 13 KOs) will be fighting as a 118-pounder for the first time when he faces Solis (30-5-1, 14 KOs) on the Gary Russell Jr.-Tugstsogt Nyambayar card in Allentown, Pennsylvania.