By Miguel Maravilla at ringside
WBO bantamweight champion John Riel Casimero (31-4, 21 KOs) successfully defended his title against two-division world champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (20-2, 13 KOs) in winning a split decision on the Showtime Championship Boxing main event as it was Cuba vs. the Philippines Saturday night at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California
Casimero stalked in the opening round as Rigondeaux backed, moments later the Filipino roughed up Rigondeaux shoving him to the canvas but continued to attack aggressively. Rigondeaux continued to box as he connected Casimero with the straight left multiple times slowing down the Filipino’s attack. Circling the ring in the third, Rigondeaux pawed with the jab as Casimero chased, drawing boos from the crowd as this was not the norm for fans at the “War Grounds.” Staying elusive in round four, Rigondeaux continued to box away as Casimero chased the fans continued to show their displeasure.
The champ came out attacking the body as Rigondeaux kept fighting his fight, preventing Casimero’s offense, later in the round Casimero landed a big right hand. It continued to be a chess match in the seventh. Later in the eighth, the Filipino lured the Cuban to fight, stand and trade picking up the action. The champion, Casimero did not lose his composure as he continued to stick to the plan, Rigondeaux continued his groove staying away and using the jab.
Casimero continued to chase the elusive Rigondeaux in the ninth as he attempted to get inside with pressure. Late in the fight in the tenth, Casimero pressure with Rigondeux continuing to stick and move cat and mouse. The championship rounds saw Casimero apply pressure but Rigondeaux got rough to start the eleventh. The champ continued to pressure smart as Rigondeaux stood away and wanted no part to convince the judges. In the twelfth and final round, the pressure continued on Casimero’s part as Rigondeaux kept his distance and boxed.
In the end, the judges scored the bout 115-113 Rigondeaux, 116-112 Casimero, and 117-111 for Casimero.
Guillermo Rigondeaux won the olympics by running
And being boring. Fighters like Rigo do not bring fans to the sport.
115 – 113 for Rigo is Questionable!
Casimero chased Rigondeaux for 12 rounds in worst title fight I ever watched. He out landed Rigo 47-44 overall.
RIGO should fight USAIN BOLY next time for the GOLD medal in the 100 meter sprint. The way he fought tonite was simply too boring depriving the paying boxing fans their money’s worth. After his humiliating loss to Vasyl LOMACHENKO Rigondeaux has never been the same.
Rigo didn’t do much, but Casimero landed almost nothing. This article makes Casimero sound quite a bit more effective than he was.
Yes, agreed.
This fight was even hard for the announcers to watch, sweet science of boxing or a bit of a circus act? It was obvious that the fans were disappointed and they made it cleared by the booing during and after the final result. Many people knew this was going to happen, a rigo win but a lot of disappointment true fight fans . The only way you can sum this up is by saying that pbc and showtime tried to make ice cream out of horse shit and that will never happen. The punch bowl as they call it and the Carson fans deserve better than that.
Boxers like Rigo are sending boxing fans to MMA.
If it is Rigondeaux is is a lousy fight.
When offensive outputs are horrible, I prefer to go with the fighter who wants it more. Meaning, Casimero tried to press the action, so I believe the Casimero won the fight. It’s too bad Casimero did not throw authoritative jabs.
Rigondeaux had opportunities to shoot more straight lefts to head and body but nope. Rigondeaux has nobody to blame but himself.
Wanting and doing are two different things. Casimero tried to press the action but didn’t succeed in that regard
You have to take the title from the champion. Rigo did not do that. He did nothing but run. Boxing is entertainment, more so than pugilism. Rigo does not fit the profile of a professional prize fighter who has to put paying customers in the seats. He acts like he is still in Cuba. There is no reason to watch his fights, for free or for pay.
Rigo does not put fans in the seats, he chases fans away from boxing. Fans want to be entertained. They pay good money for tickets. They want to see a fight.
Casimero won the fight. Rigo was running all the time not fighting. One judge for Rigo is ridicuous.
It was always Rigo’s choice to counter only occasionally when he could throw a combination. It’s his fault because he seems to get off on the defensive aspect to much. By not selecting most of those moments after he makes his opponent miss by countering he digs his own grave. He also must like the result of making a bout 5-15% of the purses he would make it he countered more. He doesn’t have to copy loma- it’s understood he loves defense, but you HAVE to add some offense too.
He can’t do it forever. He is so well preserved because he doesn’t need to spar and at his age of 40 or more he still only has the 22 pro fights. I just hope someone retires him so he doesn’t try to hang around as long as B-Hop did.
he fight like he was the champion, he forgot that he is the challenger
What is the name of this judge who scored 115-113 for rigondeux?
Crap fight and Casimero is a very crude fighter. I can’t believe the casuals saying that he is a danger to Inoue.
I fell asleep, what happened? Oh a borefest. Most entertaining thing was the post fight interview. How many racks did casimeros promoter have
This is why younger fans are watching MMA because of boring defensive fighters like Rigo.
As I have previously said it, Rigo is a boring fighter. Wasted skills, they should skip fighting this guy so he would opt for retirement.
More than three rounds.. rigo won that fight.. ha ha. Boxing have many style of fighting.. casimero should learn more to adjust. If all you can do just brawling.. go the street fight. The game isa about hit and not get hit. 1 judge scored for rigo.. that’s boxing whether people like it or not
As a half cuban myself, I can honestly say Cubans are masterful amateurs but often boring pros. I think the guy that’s agressive, takes risks and pushes the fight deserves to win unless he’s getting completely outboxed.
The art of social distancing during a pandemic.
You can simply have two strategies. Either you try to win or you try not to lose.
It should not have been difficult but Rigondeaux picked the wrong one.
Boychiks, this decision was bullshit. Nowhere near as bad as that vomit-causing bullshit on Fox, but it was a bad decision.
Rigo won that fight, but, was robbed. Granted, it was not pretty. But, Rigo outboxed him. Plus, Casimero should have been deducted at least 6 points for the bullshit he threw. 3 in the 1st round alone.
I cannot wait for Monster to fuck Casimero up.
Speaketh … Mort.
what fight were you looking at?? I would had stop the fight and disqualified rigo awful just awful running al night this is what’s destroying boxing fighters like this and expect to win..
You would have stopped the fight based on what? There is nothing in the books that says a fighter cannot be elusive. CaSinero needed to employ new strategies or cut off the ring better. Decisions to stop a fight should not be based on emotion (like yours would have). It needs to be per the rules. The fight wasn’t pretty, but Rigo won.
Carlos, to quote Roger Mayweather, Boychik, you don’t know shit about boxing.
Speaketh … Mort.
monster is afraid to casimero, he already ducked their sched fight
I have to agree. Rigo won. The fight went that way because Rigo wanted it to go that way. Casimero was unsuccessful in implementing anything and when he got in range Rigo popped him with the counter left and it changed the fight. Casimero was scared after the second round. AND he hit Rigo repeatedly when he was down in the 1st. Definitely should have been a point deduction. Rigo didn’t do much but he landed the only clean shots of the fight.
It was ugly and boring but Rigo won 7 rounds clearly and I had it 8 rds to 4.
I agree with those who say Rigo only has himself to blame. He was basically banned from TV for this kind of stuff he got another chance at prime television and blew it. He will never get it again and no one wants to fight him. Rigo could’ve done more. Casimero on the other hand tried like hell and couldn’t do jack shit.
Monster will fuck Casimero up.
Speaketh … Mort.
Rigo should NEVER be in a televised fight again. He is so boring that longtime boxing fans cannot even watch. He is what is wrong with boxing and why younger fans choose MMA.
This was a horrible fight to watch. It had me on the esge of my seat waiting for RIGO to come in hard and throw some combos but it never happened. When fighters hold excessively, they are warned and eventually deducted because it impeads the boxing match. Same situation here except running. I get it, stick and move, stick and move. Rigo forgot the stick! It was almost all move.
That was the fight of the year!!!!! Lmao!!! Won the award as the most boring fight of all time. Becomes an instructional video on how to box.
rigondeaux should not be paid for that embarassing performance. i will never watch another fight of his.
rigo’s boxing license must remove, he wants only easy money like what he did to Loma. Rigo wants only weak opponent. If strong opponent he will run all the 12 rounds and hugs if he cornered. Rigo is an overrated boxer only.
For Casimero, he should cut the hair at his forehead when fighting, its obstruction for his visibility. Casimero next fight should be inoue, not donaire…because donaire have lost already to rigo.
This is the best thing for boxing. Congrats Casimero. Boxers like Rigo are killing the sport from being boring. This is why we lose so many younger fans to MMA. We need boxers who are exciting and come to fight this is fighting fans want to see action and ko’s.
I’m not surprised by how this went , we all know how rigo will fight. To me the odd thing is why does he get main event fights? He couldn’t draw flies to s!!t and the crowd was sparse at best, yet he’s a main event on a televised show? I don’t care if he’s in a ‘title’ belt fight , nobody is clamouring for him to be on tv unless it was part of a decent card. Thank god for PVR!!
I will not be watching a Rigo fight ever again no matter who he is fighting
Noccowt: 5 stars for that comment!! Same here bud.
Can I ask a simple question? Whatever happened to taking it to the belt holder in order to try to take his belt away? IMO this crap started with mayweather. He did to boxing what rap did to music.
Rigo didn’t do much and I was disappointed however Casimero failed to land and clean blows through out. In my opinion he got outboxed. However Rigos negative style isn’t going to get the attention of judges or fans. If he would have been a bit more active he could have won a decision. Casimero was pretty crude.
How can you engage someone who is always backpedalling?
Casimero tried to catch Rigo, however, he is already on reverse gear by the time he can even get close, Casimero didn’t land a lot of punches. Nevertheless he is always on the aggresive, pressing and he is the champion it should have been the other way around.
I dont appreciate his ring attitude. I watched the fight to see if he can back up his ‘tude.
He really thought his name was big enough to take the belt away from a champion fighting or not fighting like that….?lol
The promoter needs to give the paying fans their money back. Why on earth was Rigo on television? Why would a promoter use Rigo? This wasn’t even a fight; I’m not sure what you’d call it. Rigo should have his purse held for a running tank job!
No fighter should ever fight Rigondeaux…if I were a boxer no way i will agree to fight this sprinter..bolt will be ashamed with the level of talent of Rigondeaux in sprint
rigo can fight as long its not casiermo or lomachenko