Guillermo Rigondeaux picks up interim world title title in 7th pro fight

Just 2 months ago everybody was upset that Pacquiao is facing yet another in-house fighter, one who's coming from a horrible beating and a huge controversy, and likewise boxing was outraged that David Haye is facing an oldie coming from a miracle last-round turnaround vs. a journyman - and frankly, what really changed? Pac and Haye are still rock solid favorites.

There's a more interesting fight happening on the Dallas undercard between former SBW champion Ricardo "Maestrito" Cordoba (37-2-2) and two-time Olympic gold medallist Guillermo "El Chacal" Rigondeaux (6-0) and there are many (me included), who expect the latter to steal the entire show.

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Rigondeaux of just 6 pro fights, not one going past 8 rounds, but with 400 amateur matches is suprisingly the fighter 3 years older than his experienced pro opponent at 27. There no amateur title Rigo didn't win, but as a professional, he's fighting (for an interim) world title even earlier than Leon Spinks (who fought Ali in his 8th fight). Cordoba is no pushover, with victories over P4P-er Celestino Caballero and Luis Alberto Perez, two draws with top BW Wladimir Sydorenko and losses to #1 SBW Poonsawat and Bernard Dunne in an epic, Maestrito has an accomplished young career and is looking for more.

There are a lot of question marks making this unusual matchup very intriguing: is Rigo well prepared to go 12, knowing he had training issues when he split with Roach, how does he handle pressure, volume, reach, how's his chin, is this fight too early etc? On the other hand, how much did the Dunne fight take out of Cordoba, can he repeat his earlier performances or is he past it before 30? And both being southpaws, who will have the easier time figuring the other one out?

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For me, this is definitely the fight to watch this weekend, and even though I predict Rigondeaux to shine and possibly steal the show, I'm also concerned if this calibre of fight came way too early. Unlike the other fight, this one has no ending written all over it, we know how Haye and Pacquiao perform vs. the top in the professional ring, because we've seen them, but with Rigo we can only assume, and that's a huge difference.

Don't miss this one!