Rigondeaux fighting for his family

GUILLERMO Rigondeaux yesterday told of the pain and anguish of leaving his wife and young son behind him when he left Cuba to pursue a professional boxing career.

He had climbed to the pinnacle of amateur boxing, winning back-to-back world titles — the first of them in Belfast in 2001 — and two Olympic gold medals, before Corkman Gary Hyde took him out of his native Cuba.

Speaking through his interpreter, Ricardo DeCubas, he said it was one of the hardest things he ever had to do in his life.

“It was very, very difficult,” he said. “But I left Cuba to better myself and pursue freedom. I am better off here where I can help them (his family) financially than being over there and stuck in a system that’s not working.”

On March 19 he will defend his WBA world super bantamweight title against Willie “Big Bang” Casey, at the City West in Dublin and yesterday he joined the Limerick southpaw in Thomond Park to promote the fight.

Casey gave up his European title to challenge Rigondeaux, who won the title after just seven professional fights and insisted that it was never going to be a difficult decision for him.

“Opportunities like this don’t come often,” he said. “Rigondeaux brought the belt over here for us all to see and the next time he brings it over he will leave without it.”

He admitted that the Cuban was an exceptional talent — possibly the best amateur boxer ever — but said he watched his last fight when he beat Ricardo Cordoba for the title on a split decision and found it boring.

“I was on the RTÉ Saturday Night Show with Brendan O’Connor, on the night,” he said. “When I went back to my hotel I tried to stay up to watch the fight but I fell asleep after the first round and the thing that woke me up was all the roaring on the telly. All I could hear was booing. Obviously the crowd were booing the fight because it was not as exciting as it was meant to be.

“When he comes over here to defend the title against me it’s going to be a different story.”

He said they are under no illusions about the enormity of the task that lies ahead.

“We know how devastating his punches can be and we know he will always get in there one way or another,” he said. “We’ll just have to prepare ourselves for it.

“We have to be very clever and very careful but after five or six rounds this fight is going to come down to heart and all your skill and technical ability will have gone out the door.”

Rigondeaux said he never had any reservations about coming to Ireland to defend his title.

“I have won over 400 amateur fights and I have won every amateur title,” he said. “I have seen everything in those 400 fights so there is nothing anyone can bring to the table I have not seen.

“Boxing is boxing, whether it’s amateur or pro, and I have seen it all.

“You think of boxing as a brutal sport but it’s a thinking man’s game and the man who wins is the man who can think faster. You can’t go out there and start throwing punches without a game plan.

“I don’t get nervous, nothing rattles my cage I have been in there so many times it’s just like drinking a glass of water.”

Rigondeaux will have to wait a little longer before he loses the tag of “interim champion” following yesterday morning’s WBA super bantamweight title fight in which Akifumi Shimoda defeated the defending champion, Ryol Li Lee.

His manager, Gary Hyde, however, insisted it is only a matter of time, pointing out there is now no protocol.

“The interim title that Rigondeaux has right now is the same title as Ricardo Cordoba had before he came to Dublin to fight Bernard Dunne,” he said. “At the time Celestino Caballero became Super Champion when he beat Steve Mollitor. Automatically the interim champion moved up. Rigondeaux doesn’t need to have any other fight to become regular champion.”