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For much of the night, the crowd at the PPL Center were bored out of their mind. The contest between Guillermo Rigondeaux (20-1, 13 KOs) and Liborio Solis (30-6-1, 14 KOs) wasn’t much of one.
The boxing style of Rigondeaux has always been an acquired tasted. Something that you have to essentially get used to, if that’s even possible.
The former Super Bantamweight unified champion may have 13 stoppages on his record, but he is far from a power puncher.
For years, Rigondeaux has been criticized for his lack of offense during his contests. Complain all you want, but the former champ has always gotten the job done.
Even if it came at the chagrin of the fans. Coming into his contest against Liborio Solis, many thought that they were going to get a new and improved Rigondeaux. At the age of 39, his legs no longer seemed to be the same.
Well, if you were banking on an action packed contest between these two. You were both right and wrong.
When the opening bell rang, Rigondeaux, a notoriously slow starter, looked slower than usual. The question immediately popped up, that maybe he just got old over night.
Solis, came out on fire and landed the first heavy shot of the contest. Rigondeaux stumbled across the ring, but managed to stay upright.
The fans in attendance seemed to be in for a great back-and-forth contest.
But, then reality set in.
Rigondeaux came out and boxed from the outside. He didn’t just keep that game plan going for the first few rounds. He stuck to it for the duration of the contest.
To say that the fans were not happy with the performance would be an understatement. Chants broke out of “throw punches” and “this is boring”.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Rigondeaux landed a devastating left hand that wobbled his man. He quickly followed it up with more shots. As Solis began to fall the ground, the ropes kept him upright which resulted in a knockdown.
Again, the crowd got excited as they believed they were going to see some action. And once again, they were wrong. Rigondeaux, danced his way to an easy decision victory on the scorecards. Or at least he should have.
For some inexplicable reason one judge scored the contest 115-112 for Solis. Thankfully, common sense prevailed as the the remaining two judges scored the bout 115-112 and 116-111 in favor of Rigondeaux who officially became a two division world champion.
Final Grade For Guillermo Rigondeaux: A
Say what you want about Guillermo Rigondeaux. He was boring and unwatchable at times, but he boxed a master class against Liborio Solis.
The one judge who scored it in favor of Solis should be ignored and then banned.
Rigondeaux was untouchable and proved that even at 39, his defensive ability is second to none.
