~ Guillermo RIGONDEAUX to fight on the Berto-Quintana card! ~

Freddie Roach to train Rigondeaux!

ESPN reports that Rigo and Yudel Johnson visited Freddy Roach's LA gym on Monday and they both signed to train under the HOF master after a single day of work-out. This also means that both Cubans will relocate to Los Angeles, which is just as good, because it's easy to lose focus in Miami's heated community. Rigo has to speed things up, and doing it with Roach in LA might be the best way to do it. Here's Rafael's article on this excellent news:

Roach is particlarly good in controlled aggression, so boxer-puncher Lara and expecially flawed puncher Yuriorkis Gamboa should move to LA to train under Roach too. I hope this will happen as soon as Rigo settles in and shares his positive impressions with Yuri.

 

It's official: Rigo returns of ESPN2 FNF on July 17!

From ESPN: Two more cards have finalized for ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights," which finishes the season Aug. 28. On July 17 at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, lightweight Breidis Prescott (21-0, 18 KOs), who owns a first-round knockout win against Amir Khan, headlines against Ray Nahr (22-1, 19 KOs). Also, junior featherweight Guillermo Rigondeaux, the 2000 and 2004 Cuban Olympic gold medalist, and junior middleweight Yudel Johnson, who won gold in 2004, box their second professional fights and first under the guidance of new trainer Freddie Roach. Two weeks later in at the Hard Rock in Hollywood, Fla., former lightweight titlist Julio Diaz (36-5, 26 KOs) faces Victor Manuel Cayo (22-0, 15 KOs). It will be Diaz's first fight since he was stopped in the fifth round by Rolando Reyes in an April upset. In the co-feature, heavyweight Chazz Witherspoon (25-1, 17 KOs) fights Carl Davis Drummond (26-1, 20 KOs), who is coming off his only loss, a six-round technical decision to Ruslan Chagaev in February.

 

Here's an update from main page:

NTH promotions seeks injunction to stop Rigondeaux fight July 17 on ESPN FNF

CORK, Ireland (June 30, 2009) – Irish boxing manager Gary Hyde, president of NTH Promotions, is seeking an injunction to prevent 2-time Olympic champion Guillermo Rigondeaux from fighting on the July 17th ESPN2 Friday Night Fights show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Rigondeaux (1-0, 1 KO), fighting as a bantamweight, now lives in Los Angeles after defecting from Cuba, where he was a 7-time national champion. The 28-year-old southpaw also won multiple World Championships titles, as well as a gold medal at the 2003 Pan-Am Games, during his incredible 243-4 amateur career..

“I first met Rigo in Belfast at the 2001 World Boxing Championships and subsequently traveled to Cuba,” Hyde explained. “Rigo signed a 5-year management contract with me in March of 2007. I am currently battling in the Miami courts to enforce our management agreement because he made his pro debut under the management of GSMG LTD and Marcus Concepcion, who work closely with the Arena Box outfit. I could find no record of either holding a manager’s license.

“I made an application for a temporary injunction to prevent Rigondeaux from boxing May 22, but the presiding judge allowed him to box in the interest of the public, although his purse was frozen. Our case is getting stronger by the day. The only contract with Rigondeaux, on file with the Florida State Boxing Commission, was dated May, 2009 with GSMG and Marcus Concepcion as managers. When GSMG and Concepcion learned of the 2007 contract with me, they showed-up with a 3-year contract dated July, 2006 with Antonio Gonzalez, director of GSMG, as manager. There are numerous contradictions in their contract that are coming out. I have the only valid managerial contract for Rigo and we are hoping the honorable judge acknowledges.”

Hyde also manages three other Cuban boxers who defected and are now fighting as professionals out of Ireland – heavyweight Mike “The Rebel” Perez (8-0, 6 KOs), winner of the World Junior Championships; bantamweight Alexei “The Hurricane” Acosta (5-0, 5 KOs) and super middleweight Luis “El Leon” Garcia (5-0, 4 KOs), both World Junior Championships champion in 2006.

“I applied for and was granted a European Union work permit for Rigo,” Hyde continued. “My intention was for Rigo to make his pro debut on a Brian Peters Promotions show in Ireland and then head to the United States, where Brian had laid the foundation with some of the major TV companies. We would then have a stage to showcase my ‘Cuban Young Guns.’ Rigo decided to go ahead to Miami because he has more connections there. Now, I’m battling for the guy I have signed to a contract, who was the best amateur boxer on the planet. We recently contacted Freddie Roach to ask about his roll as Rigo’s trainer. Freddie said that he wouldn’t be getting involved, but when I’m awarded a judgement as Rigo’s manager, I hope to have him as his trainer.”