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Visa Problems Threaten to Scuttle the Rigondeaux Dickens Fight in Liverpool

Published

9 years ago

March 8, 2016

Rigondeaux Dickens Fight – Guillermo Rigondeaux is dealing with a visa problem that has put his March 12 bout vs. James “Jazza” Dickens in jeopardy. Rigondeaux vs. Dickens is the main supporting bout to the WBO World lightweight title affair between Terry Flanagan and Derry Mathews. The staging ground is Echo Arena in Liverpool.

Rigondeaux has been training in Russia and is currently grid-locked in Moscow. In a letter to British promoter Frank Warren, Rigondeaux’s co-promoter Dino Duva wrote that a Russian holiday has prevented the visa issue from being resolved in a timely manner.

Rigondeaux (16-0, 10 KOs) is rated #1 in the junior featherweight division by the authoritative Transnational Boxing Rankings Board. However, the 35-year old Cuban defector, a former two-time Olympic gold medalist, has been relatively inactive, forcing the sanctioning bodies to strip him of his titles. Owing largely to the problem of finding willing opponents, Rigondeaux has fought only once in the last 14 months and hasn’t fought a top five contender in almost three years.

If the bout is salvaged, Rigondeaux figures to have an easy time with the light hitting 24-year-old Dickens (21-1, 6 KOs), a fellow southpaw who has fought exclusively in the United Kingdom. A talked-about match with undefeated Carl Frampton, the IBF/WBA super bantamweight title-holder, would thrust the Cuban defector back into the spotlight. Rigondeaux and Frampton share a common nickname: “The Jackal.”

The match between the 26-year-old Terry Flanagan (29-0, 12 KOs) and 32-year-old Derry Mathews (38-9-2, 20 KOs) is an all-England affair, but Mathews, a Liverpudlian, will have the home field advantage. In his last start, Mathews scored a smashing second round knockout of Diego Magdaleno in the first defense of his WBO crown. Mathews is coming off a 12-round unanimous decision over Tony Luis is a match billed for the interim WBA World lightweight title.

Nine other bouts are scheduled, including an intriguing 12-round bantamweight affair between South Africa’s Zolani Tete and Mexico’s Jose Santos Gonzalez.

Check out a video results for this fight at The Boxing Channel

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