Congratulations to John Riel Casimero who emerged victorious over Guillermo Rigondeaux, and successfully defended his WBO bantamweight crown via split decision.
Almost everyone unanimously agrees that it was an ugly, unwatchable fight, which is typical when Rigo is one of the protagonists. Both of them set a Compubox record of the lowest punches thrown in a fight with a combined output of 91.
But what was surprising to me was that there are actually a sizable number of boxing fans and journalists out there who thought Rigo did enough to win. By out there, I am referring to boxing Twitter which can be quite interesting post-fight with so many outlandish takes. Follow me on Twitter @thelastround to get in on some of the action.
RIGO. A defensive wizard unlike anyone the fight game has seen before, Rigo’s style is befuddling, bedeviling and clearly, quite divisive in its appreciation.
But a Pernell Whitaker he is not. And don’t even mention Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the conversation.
“Sweet Pea” made opponents miss while staying in the pocket, with his feet planted. Watch his fight with Oscar de la Hoya and you will see the latter miss him by mere centimeters, all the while staying within punching range.
Rigo does that sometimes but is more often seen prancing around the ring like a popinjay. An article I read online had me stumped. According to Bad Left Hook, using proprietary CompuWalk technology, Rigo clocked 5,818 steps or a total of 2.48 miles in 12 rounds.
Translated into a punch-per-step output, he took 132 steps per punch landed.
QUADRO ALAS. Admittedly, Casimero didn’t look too stellar either. He missed with a lot of shots and his aggression was far from being effective. But here’s why the blame has to be placed on Rigo and why he didn’t deserve to win at all.
After getting a taste of Casimero’s power in the first round wherein he had to lean on one glove to retain his balance after just being clipped on the side of the head (which should have been ruled a knockdown), Rigo apparently decided he wanted none of it and spent the rest of the night trying with all his defensive might to prevent a fight from happening.
And by that, Rigo ensured that he would not be in harm’s way for the majority of the evening. Sure, he would land a telling counter sporadically, but that was followed by a lot of preening, ducking, hugging, back-pedaling and running.
In short, he made sure he was not within punching range of Casimero and by that logic alone, the latter should not be blamed entirely for the ineffectualness of his offense.
TIMIDITY. It’s quite simple, really. All you have to do is look at the track record of both fighters to determine who made that fight unwatchable.
Casimero has never been one to be accused of timidity in any of his fights. He is a straight-up, all-action fighter who relishes exchanges.
And we all know what Rigo brings to the table. Or rather what he doesn’t bring to the table.
Last time I checked Adam, boxing is a fighting game where boxers actually fight. When people laud timidity, that hurts the sport. Rigo lost because he didn’t come to fight. That’s that.
LAST ROUND. It’s on Maricel Martinez-Maniquis, who recently celebrated her birthday. Cheers!