Frampton vs Santa Cruz ll: Battle of the ducking disgrace.

Rigo needs better management, and needs to start aiming for knockouts and changing his style, if he's that good and he is then he needs to make himself a draw. His last fight against James Dickens he barely threw a punch.

 

That's the thing - boxing isn't all about winning and losing. If people don't want to watch you perform, it doesn't matter how good you are.

Rigo is entertaining when he fights scrubs and he can knock them out - when he faces a good oponent he (for the most part) makes Whitaker look like Gatti. I just can't feel sorry for him.

 

Agreed, and he knows this too. He even promised to fight more aggressively, and when he finally gets the opportunity against a subpar opponent, he stinks the house up, yet again.

 

There's a lot of truth to this.

I like Rigo. If we are rating boxers purely according to skill, he's probably the best there currently is (although he is old and rarely in competitive fights so it's hard to know if he's still at his best). I think the fact that nobody wants to watch him is an indictment of boxing fans. I think that the way he's been treated by promoters, managers and TV networks is disgraceful. And yet...

Badly treated as he's been, he absolutely refuses to change his style or approach to make himself marketable or interesting to casual fans. It's not right or fair that he should have to fight sub optimally to pander to people who don't appreciate his skill, but that's the way things are. Boxing is an entertainment business. He doesn't entertain people who don't appreciate his skills. He doesn't draw interest. He doesn't bring ticket sales or tv money.

Complaints about other fighters refusing to fight him are misplaced. Any manager who chooses to put his young star up against someone he will probably lose to, in a fight that will be seen by most as a complete stinker, for less money than can be had elsewhere, is a complete idiot.

 

five pages of why i cant fight Rigo excuses.

Not one line of the real reason. They are scared shizitless. Rigo the most feared man in boxing.

guy walking around with five straps and no one not a soul wiling to try and take one. enough said. mic drop.

 

He did move up in weight... Rigo is the one screaming for the fight now. Stands to reason, he would be the smaller man challenging a fighter in the 130 class.

Something wrong with you.

 

Boxing is a business, he doesn't make anyone any money. That's as reasonable and straight forward as it gets.

 

This must have Lomachenko AFTER the fact overtones.

 

Please refer to my previous post. enough excuses.

 

Well said.

 

He was already being critisised before he landed the Agbeko fight and that was a main event fight on HBO. That was his big opportunity and, despite completely outclassing his opponent, he never even tried to be entertaining. He won 120-110 on every card and every second was painful to watch.

When you have that kind of opportunity and you pull fewer viewers than two fights on the undercard, you can't call anyone out. You just can't.

 

I'm no Rigo hater by any means. I truly appreciate his craft as it works for him, but I don't find his craft entertaining at all and neither do 99.998% of Prize fighting fans. Again, not that I don't appreciate his sweet science, it just doesn't move me or most people. I like to see fighters attempt to actually inflict pain and damage on their opponents.

I am not a big fan of Amateur boxing, and Rigondeaux's style is completely amateur.

 

I don't have anything against Rigo for the record, it's just when fighters like Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz are called duckers frustrates me.
Frampton - aside from Rigo has fought the best of the best in his division and come out trumps, he has fought Scott Quigg and Leo Santa Cruz - back to back! - and won both fights.
But if you look at Rigo's record yes he has a fantastic win over Donaire but he hasn't faced the same competition that people believe he has! his last few fights were against...

James Dickens (british level)
Drian Fransesco (who? C level fighter... at best)
Hisashi Amagasa (tall clumsy fighter who got outboxed by Josh Warrington..)
Anusorn Yotjan (Thai no-hoper lots of wins against poor fighters and loses every time he faces someone with a pulse)

And then other than the Donaire win and arguably his performance against a fading Cordoba, Rigo has been the one feasting on poor competition, and failing to entertain and show networks just how good he is.

He's had the opportunity to look great, and we don't know how he would do against Frampton/Santa Cruz, everyone thinks it's a formality he'll win, but since he's not faced someone decent for years I think he could end up losing.

There's two great fighters in the ranks that have amazing amateur credentials, and the one that everyone wants to see is Lomachenko not Rigo, Lomachenko has that smooth style where he appeals to the casuals as well as the boxing hardcore, he makes fights entertaining, he is that skillful and also throws punches with spite and has faced excellent opposition which has been far better than Rigo (Gary Russell, Nicholas Walters, Salido, Roman Martinez).

He even had a defeat to deal with and came back stronger, he has made himself a draw and to some extent changed his style and become more aggressive.
Rigo, should take a look at what he's done and emulate it. I hope Rigo manages to find his groove and KO Flores in style instead of dance around to a dull points decision...

 

Rigo needs to fight more often, he's done nothing to help his cause.

 

Who wants to pay to watch him fight?