Since Top Rank stopped co-promoting him after the Sod Kokietgym blowout last July, I’ve heard from numerous insider sources that he has received multi-million dollar fight deals from various promotional/managerial organizations (Al Haymon, Roc Nation, Frank Warren). If Caribe Promotions is stonewalling these deals without keeping Rigo busy I think the fighter needs to address this situation before he is stripped of all of his world titles (including THE RING belt) and dropped from everyone’s rankings. Rigo has got two full months before he reaches the one-year mark of inactivity (his last bout was an up-from-the-canvas 11th-round stoppage of unrated Hisashi Amagasa in Japan). He’ll be removed from most of the credible independent rankings once he reaches 12 months of inactivity (without having a fight scheduled). He will be stripped of THE RING’s 122-pound title if he does not schedule a fight at his championship weight for 18 months (or if he’s inactive for that period).
I have no reason to doubt the claims of Rigo’s former manager (Gary Hyde) that Caribe is ruining the Cuban southpaw’s career, but I think the fighter needs to show some urgency, or at least public concern, in regards to his future. I know the junior featherweight champ has a small-but-dedicated legion of “boxing-purist” supporters (the Cult of Rigo) who laude his skills and love his minimalist approach to the Sweet Science, but I think it’s time the fighter take action. He doesn’t have to do it in the ring, but he does need to get IN the ring. If Caribe is preventing this, he needs to look into a legal separation – and while the case is pending, he needs to find a way into a boxing ring (they can take him to court or fight him in court but they can’t legally prevent him from earning a living).
When Gennady Golovkin reached a legal impasse with his former promotional company (Universum in Germany), which would not release him from their contract, rather than sit out until the contract expired (which would have been an entire year) GGG sought out ways to remain busy. He basically formed his own promotional company with his management team and fought Milton Nunez, Nilson Tapia and Kassim Ouma in Panama and Kazakhstan from late 2010 to mid-2011. He wasn’t able to fight in Europe or the U.S. because the major networks in those regions weren’t going to get involved while his lawsuit with Universum was active, so he didn’t make much money with those three bouts, but he grabbed the WBA’s interim/regular titles and kept active until his business with Universum came to a close and he caught the attention of K2 Promotions. The rest, as they say, is history.
Just one man’s opinion, but I think Rigo – who is 35 years old – needs to do the same thing GGG did until he can make a lucrative deal with one of the sport’s power brokers.
