One of the world’s top pound-for-pound boxers Guillermo Rigondeaux will fight in Britain for the first time on Saturday March 12th at the Liverpool Echo Arena when he faces Merseyside hero Jazza Dickens. It’s another strange stop in the unrespected, avoided career of Rigondeaux.
The Cuban superstar takes on Dickens over ten rounds on the undercard of Terry Flanagan’s WBO World Lightweight title defence against Derry Mathews and is a further fantastic addition to the top quality show, that saw world class fighter Zolani Tete added to the line up this week.
Undefeated Rigondeaux, who fights out of Miami, Florida, is regarded as the world’s best super-bantamweight and the dangerous 35-year-old is the man that Carl Frampton and Scott Quigg both chose to avoid and instead wisely opted to fight each other.
“El Chacal” or “The Jackal” is also considered one of the greatest amateur boxers in history, a two-time Olympic Champion and currently undefeated in 16 fights in with ten knockouts. He won his first world title, the WBA Interim crown, in November 2013 before becoming the full WBA World Champion in January 2012 when he knocked out then unbeaten Rico Ramos in six rounds.
He then unified the WBA title with the WBO belt when he outpointed Nonito Donaire in April 2013 with three further defences of both belts until his was stripped by both organisations last year. He last fought in November when he outpointed Drian Francisco over ten rounds to claim the WBC International Silver title.
Rigondeaux, who’s fought in America, Mexico, Ireland, China and Japan is looking forward to showcasing his skills on the these shores for the first time and promises to give fans a real eye-catching display.
In a real ‘Rocky’ story Dickens heads into the fight as the underdog against Rigondeaux, but has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rip up the script and catapult himself into the world’s elite by defeating the Havana hitman.
Winning his first 16 fights and collecting the English Super-Bantamweight title along the way, he suffered his first loss to Kid Galahad in a British and Commonwealth title challenge in September 2014. He bounced back and is currently on a five fight unbeaten run and captured the British title against Josh Wale last March and defended it against Martin Ward in November.
The chirpy Scouser is a local hero with his down to earth, jack-the-lad, character, but has a steely determination to upset the odds on the biggest night of his life.
“It is like a Rocky story, one day I’m just training waiting for my next fight and then I get call, do I want to fight Guillermo Rigondeaux? Are you mad, one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world wants to fight me? Not half, I’ll definitely have some of that!” Said Dickens.
“Opportunities like this don’t come around every day so I’ve grabbed it with both hands. It’s been my childhood dream to be the best in the world and this to me is a golden opportunity to become the best by beating Rigondeaux,”
“He might not have the belts, but he’s still the world champion in my eyes, Frampton and Quigg both didn’t want to know him, but what they see as a threat, I see as an opportunity. We’ve all got weaknesses and Rigondeaux will have his, it’s my job to go out an exploit them and beat him.”
