By Ian S Palmer
The 2014 boxing calendar will be going right down to the wire in 2014 as undefeated Guillermo Rigondeaux of Cuba will be defending his WBO Super Bantamweight Crown on New Year’s Eve against Hisashi Amagasa of Japan. The bout will be taking place at the Bodymaker Coliseum in Osaka, Japan with Rigondeaux as the heavy favourite.
The 34-year-old Rigondeaux will climb through the ring ropes with a perfect record of 14-0 along with 9 Kos. He now fights out of Miami, Florida and stands 5-feet-4-inches tall and has a 66-inch reach. The champion is one of the best technical boxers on the planet, but his fights often lull fans to sleep. He’s only had 14 bouts since turning pro in 2009 and has never been a very active boxer when it comes to bouts per year.
His last contest took place in July and he scored a first-round stoppage over Sod Kokietgym at the Venetian Resort in Macau, China. He won the WBA version of the title back in November of 2010 with a split decision victory against Ricardo Cordoba. Rigondeaux then added the WBO belt in April of 2013 when he outboxed Nonito Donaire of the Philippines to earn himself a 12-round unanimous decision. He’s made two defenses of that belt.
The 29-year-old Amagasa enters the bout with a fine record of 28-4-2 and has 19 Kos on his resume. He has a over half-a-foot in height advantage since he’s just over 5-feeet-10-inches tall. He’s ranked as the top super bantamweight in Japan and will have the home crowd in his side. Although Amagasa has lost four times he’s got a pretty solid chin and has never been stopped. His last contest was a 12th-round TKO over Ryo Takenaka back in the middle of October and he won the OPBF Featherweight Championship with the victory.
Rigondeaux had an excellent amateur career and capped it off by winning gold medals at both the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games as a bantamweight. He also won a pair of world amateur titles and various other trophies. He reportedly had 475 amateur bouts and lost just 12 of them. Amagasa turned pro back in 2004 and has fought all of his bouts in Japan against limited opposition. Also, the heaviest he’s fought at is a featherweight.
He’s understandably going into this fight as the underdog, but has the edge in height and the hometown crowd. Other than that he’s going to have his hands full with the champions in this fight and will need to box the bout of his life to upset him.
Prediction
Rigondeaux is arguably the best pound-for pound boxer in the world at the moment and it’s well deserved even though he doesn’t have a fan-friendly style. He’d really have to have an off-night to lose his crown to Amagasa and while it’s possible because it’s the holiday season, it’s not likely to happen. Rigondeaux will likely retain his crown via a rather comfortable unanimous decision.
