Rigondeaux stripped of Junior title

Guillermo Rigondeaux was stripped of his junior featherweight title following his defeat to in a junior title bout on December 9th, according to Dan Rafael of .com

“I think it’s very unfair,” Alex Bornote, Rigondeaux’s manager, told ESPN. “We fought at 130 pounds. What does that have to do with anything at 122 pounds, where Rigo was champion? They just had it in for us. His inactivity has totally screwed him. Rigo has been inactive and when you’re inactive the WBA is not getting any sanctioning fees, so they’ve had it in for us.”

“I didn’t think it would be such a horrible performance,” Bornote said. “It’s another nail in his coffin in his career. It’s the Rigo story. Never have I ever seen such a thing. He has no luck at all.

“He doesn’t feel all that great right now. He didn’t think the weight difference would be such a big deal, but Lomachenko is a very special talent, a great boxer. And Rigo also hurt his hand, so he was at a big disadvantage.”

“It was hard enough for Rigo to get a fight when he had a world title, so now imagine what it’s going to be like without a title. But he’s definitely going back to his weight class at 122 pounds or maybe 126 pounds,” Bornote said. “He’s really a natural 118-pounder, but in this market, with the opponents out there, we might have to also consider fighting at 126 pounds.

“I just don’t know what we’re going to do. Maybe we’ll find something in Europe for him. They liked him when he fought in U.K. [in 2016]. But we’ll try to get him back in the ring and wash that bad taste out of our mouth because that performance with Lomachenko was horrible. He knows it. Lomachenko was just too big, too fast and Rigo hurt his hand. It was a disaster for him. Lomachenko is special. Rigo doesn’t see anyone who is going to beat [Lomachenko] in that weight class. He said Lomachenko is for real.”