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Top Rank signs Rigondeaux to multi-fight deal

Fighters Network
12
Oct

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An attorney for Gary Hyde, manager of WBA junior featherweight beltholder Guillermo Rigondeaux, told RingTV.com on Friday that the boxer has signed a multi-fight deal with Top Rank in the wake of having extended Hyde’s contract for three years.

Rigondeaux (10-0, 8 knockouts) had been considered a free agent following his HBO Pay Per View-televised unanimous decision victory over Roberto Marroquin on Sept. 15, after which Top Rank CEO Bob Arum said he was “still working on finishing up” a deal that would allow his company to promote the two-time Olympic gold medalist.

“[Rigondeaux] signed a multi-fight deal with Top Rank,” said Hyde’s lawyer, Patrick English, of Rigondeaux, whose contract with Hyde was extended through Sept. 15, 2015, thanks to an order from Miami-Dade County judge David Miller. “It is anticipated that he will fight in December.”



Top Rank had originally targeted Rigondeaux to appear at at Marlins Park in Miami on the undercard of a Dec. 15 card at defense by welterweight titleholder Tim Bradley, whose controversial split-decision in June dethroned Manny Pacquiao as the WBO’s 147-pound titleholder.

Top Rank also has Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KOs) fighting on Dec. 8 on HBO Pay Per View from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in a fourth bout opposite four-division titlewinner Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-2, 39 KOs). Marquez lost by a highly disputed majority decision in November to Pacquiao, with whom he has also battled to a draw and lost by split decision previously.

“[Rigondeaux] will be back sometime in December, not necessarily [on Dec. 15,.]” said Arum. “He’s being considered [for the Pacquiao undercard] as well as Dec. 15.”

Rigondeaux vanquished Marroquin on a card that was promoted by Top Rank and whose main event featured a unanimous decision by RING middleweight champion Sergio Martinez over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Rigondeaux-Marroquin happened after English, the attorneys for Top Rank and Rigondeaux’s lawyer, Guy Spiegelman, reached an out-of-court agreement in spite of an injunction which had prevented Rigondeaux from facing Marroquin

A written order from Miller had forbid Rigondeaux from facing Marroquin, but Hyde granted his blessing a few days prior to the fight, having worked out satisfactory terms with Top Rank lawyer David Marroso, a senior attorney with the Los Angeles-based O’Melveny and Myers law firm, and Spiegelman.

Arum has been involved in ongoing negotiations with the camps of Bradley (29-0, 12 KOs) and IBF junior welterweight beltholder Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KOs) for a potential HBO-televised rematch. bout from Marlins Park in Miami, Fla., on Dec. 15.

Peterson (30-1-1, 15 knockouts) is 3-0-1 with two knockouts since falling to Bradley by unanimous decision in December of 2009, and is coming off a disputed split-decision that dethroned Amir Khan at the Washington Convention Center in December.

“We’re awaiting developments” on Bradley-Peterson, said Arum. “We’ve made [Bradley] an offer on the Lamont Peterson fight. Period.”

But Bradley appears to be uninterested in the return bout.

“I want people to know, and no disrespect to Peterson, but I’ve already been down that road,” said Bradley, to his hometown newspaper. “I think a rematch with him doesn’t make sense at all. I think that’s another thing people need to know and realize.”

Photo by Chris Farina, Top Rank

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]