SPORTS SHORTS 195: GUILLERMO RIGONDEAUX'S AMAZING AMATEUR RECORD
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 14 Aug 2021
Guillermo Rigondeaux, who will combat with John Riel Casimero on Saturday, August 14 (Sunday Philippine time), has a very amazing amateur boxing record.
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As a professional, the Cuban was only beaten by another amazing former amateur fighter in Vasiliy Lomachenko of Ukraine, a former two-time Olympic gold medalist like him.
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Rigondeaux's amateur record includes 165 wins 5 losses with 13 wins by KO per BoxRec. He finished his amateur career with 386 fights including 374 wins and 12 losses per Wikipedia.
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Rigondeaux lost to Carlos Cuadras of Mexico in the 2007 Pan American Games bantamweight quarter-finals. He was defeated by Agasi Agaguloglu of Turkey in the 2003 World Championships Round two. He was out pointed by Waldemar Font of Cuba in 1999.
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He was beaten by Bekzat Sattarkhanov of Kazakhstan at the 1998 World Junior Championships bantamweight quarterfinals. Rencise Perez of Cuba conquered him at the 1998 Playa Giron Cuban National Championship bantamweight semifinals.
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Rigondeaux won two Olympic gold medals, one at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the other at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He captured two gold medals in the World Championships, one in 2001 at Belfast and the other in 2005 in Mianyang.
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Rigondeaux seized three gold medals in the World Cup in 2002 Astana, 2005 Moscow, and 2006 Baku. He got the gold at the 2003 Santo Domingo Pan American Games and another gold at the 2006 Cartagena Central American and Caribbean Games.
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Representing Santiago de Cuba, he dominated seven straight Cuban National Championships and harvested the gold medal in 2000 Guantanamo, 2001 Santiago de Cuba, 2002 Las Tunas, 2003 Holguin, 2004 Camagüey, 2005 Pinar del Rio and 2006 Bayamo.
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He defeated Raimkul Malakhbekov of Russia for the gold medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He outpointed Worapoj Petchkoom of Thailand for the gold in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
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The Cuban fighter defeated Aghasi Mammadov of Turkey for gold in the 2001 World amateur champion in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
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At the 2002 World Cup in Astana, Kazakhstan, he was champion when he defeated Toljen Kanatov of Kazakhstan for the gold medal. At the 2003 World championships in Bangkok, Thailand, he lost to Aghasi Mammadov of Azerbaijan.
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He defeated Abner Mares of Mexico at the 2003 Pan-American games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He won over Rustamhodza Rahimov or Germany in the gold medal match at the 2005 World amateur championships at Mianyang, China.
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Rigondeaux defeated Maksim Khalikov of Russia for the gold at the 2005 World Cup in Moscow, Russia. He also outpointed defeated Zsolt Bedák, Nonito Donaire's former professional opponent, from Hungary, in the second round of the said tournament.
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He was the 2006 gold medalist at Central American Games in Cartagena, Colombia, out classing Arturo Santos Reyes of Mexico. He stopped Ali Aliyev of Russia by referee stopped contest in round 3 to capture the gold medal at the Nations Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan.
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On 22 July 2007, Rigondeaux and teammate Erislandy Lara failed to appear for their scheduled bouts at the Pan American Games in Brazil. Rigondeaux signed a promotional deal with Ahmet Oener and ARENA Box-Promotion.
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He joined his 2004 Athens Olympian teammates Odlanier Solis, Yuriorkis Gamboa and Yan Bartelemí, who defected to the United States earlier and signed the same promotional company.
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When he turned pro, Rigondeaux is a two-weight world champion, presently holding the WBA (Regular) bantamweight title since 2020, and previously the unified WBA (Super), WBO, and The Ring super bantamweight titles.
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In only his 12th career fight, he defeated Nonito Donaire by unanimous decision on April 13, 2013 at the Radio City Music Hall, New York City, where he defended his WBA (Super) super bantamweight title grabbing Donaire's WBO and The Ring super bantamweight titles.
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In his 16th fight, Rigondeaux won over another Filipino Drian Francisco by unanimous decision on November 21, 2015 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, Paradise, Nevada, where he retained The Ring super bantamweight title and captured the vacant WBC International Silver super bantamweight title.
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Casimero will only be Rigondeaux's third Filipino opponent. He is a three-weight world champion, the WBO bantamweight champion since 2019, and previously the IBF junior-flyweight champion and the IBF flyweight titlist.
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The Ormoc City born boxer was also formerly the WBO interim junior-flyweight champion and WBO interim bantamweight title holder.
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The Philippines remained at the 31st place in the FIBA's latest world rankings released after the Tokyo Olympics. Gilas Pilipinas is the no. 6 team in Asia-Oceania behind Australia, Iran, New Zealand, China, and South Korea.
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The Philippines has 322.8, which is 13.2 points behind South Korea, who lost to the Philippines twice in the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers last June.
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Australia is in third place following its bronze medal finish in Tokyo with 690.5 points. Tokyo Games gold medalist United States remains on top with 765.2 points while Spain, which is unable to win an Olympic medal, is at no.2 with 722.4 points.
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Slovenia, which placed fourth in the 2020 Olympics, surged 12 places to place fourth with 675.9 points while Olympic silver medalist France is at fifth with 670.5 points.
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Serbia is ranked sixth with 665.9 points while Argentina is at seventh place with 655.3 points. Italy is ranked eighth with 649.3 points followed by Lithuania at ninth at 647.4 with Greece at No. 10 with 633.3 points.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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