Guillermo Rigondeaux to defend title for the first time against Teon Kennedy – Boxing news
Guillermo Rigondeaux, the current WBA World super bantamweight champion, will defend his newly acquired title for the very first time against a bit more experienced pugilist Teon Kennedy, the incumbent USBA super bantamweight champion, in a 12-round bout
to be held on June 9, 2012.
The duo will meet on the undercard of the fight card being headlined by the WBO welterweight title bout between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley. The showdown is being organised and promoted by Bob Arum of Top Rank and will also witness undefeated Mike
Jones take on veteran Randall Bailey in a 12-round IBF welterweight title bout while constituting the co-main event.
Guillermo, 31, will enter in his ninth professional bout. The Cuban proud has never lost even a single bout and has pinned seven of his opponents by sheer knockout. Rigondeaux is considered as a quality pugilist with a lethal southpaw stance, the fact why
he is being ignored by most top-notch divisional title-holder pugilists.
Also known as ‘El Chacal’ or ‘The Jackal’, Guillermo grabbed his career’s very first title in third pro-career bout. Moreover, the Cuban pounder collected the interim WBA World super bantamweight gold from Ricardo Cordoba and defended it successfully against
Willie Casey.
Rigondeaux engraved his name on the title after collecting a sixth round knockout win over Rico Ramos eventually unifying the title. During the short media interaction, Guillermo thanked Teon for accepting his challenge in a scenario where no one was ready
to take him on.
Guillermo stated, “Thanks to Teon Kennedy for being here, because everybody else has been backing away.” While denoting Nonito Donaire, Toshiaki Nishioka, Jeffrey Mathebula, Abner Mares and others as a ‘coward’, Rigondeaux further added, “All other so-called
champions of the division have hidden. My promotional team has tried to reach them, but do not receive responses. They are cowards.”
His opponent, Teon, 25, is a young American lad who has been in a total 20 bouts. Kennedy emerged victorious in 17 bouts and nailed seven of his opponents by knockout.
The orthodox Pennsylvania proud has collected just one loss decision in his career from Alejandro Lopez. As far as the technicalities and stats are concerned, Guillermo is being evaded by most for being a powerful knockout pounder and if it is true, Teon
will stand no chance at all in front of the Cuban.
However, if by applying a perfect game plan while eluding Guillermo’s jabs and by collecting much precious points he might become victorious at the end but this will require intense agility and footwork.
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