Looks like Rigo vs Donaire is off

Donaire just posted this...

NEWS BREAK: I want you guys to hear it from me first. I am NOT going to NYC for the presser this Thursday bc Rigo is backing off his agreement to VADA drug testing. Rigo's team verbally agreed to VADA testing both online and in negotiations. But now that the contract to start testing is infront of them, they are finding every excuse not to sign and delay the start of the testing. I have NOT signed my fight contract yet to fight him so I have no obligation to fight ONLY HIM. It disappoints me that top fighters these days run from everything that will hold professional boxing integrity to its highest standard. I will be looking into other opponents with my manager, Cameron Dunkin immediately.

Can't blame Donaire, love to see what the Rigo fan boys have to say about this....

Mackem...

Go.

But in all seriousness, that is real bad news, it sounds as though it is very possible that Rigo is also a drug cheat, although this of course isn't damning evidence, with the amount of drug cheats there seems to be in sports at the moment and people who shoot there girlfriends through bathroom doors, it's manic. It makes me put Rigo on a high level of the suspect drug cheat list, which is a massive shame.

One thing I do know is that Abner Mares wouldn't turn the tests and would be a far better anyway but uncle Bob wont let that one happen. Donaire is being screwed by his own integrity.

Well, let's wait until both sides of the story have come to light first before we sling the mud, I say - because there's no doubt that there will be two sides. At the end of the day, Rigondeaux is under no forerunning obligation to abide by VADA testing, just as Pacquiao was never under any obligation to bend to Mayweather's desire to 'clean up the sport' with additional, so-called Olympic style testing. Obviously, Donaire's links with VADA are a lot more ethical and a lot less cynical than Mayweather's ridiculous stances, but even so, I don't want to jump to any conclusions.

If he did give a verbal / gentleman's agreement or whatever beforehand but is now backing out for whatever reason, then it's disappointing. But if he is to say that he never accepted the idea of additional VADA testing in the first place, for instance, then it's only his word against Nonito's, and who can be really be sure which man / team is telling the truth?

I'll await the developments from Rigondeaux and his team in response to this before I start suggesting that anyone's a cheat or that the fight is totally dead in the water.

Chris I understand you're trying to play devils advocate but everyone knows what they're going to have to do to fight Donaire and that is accept VADA testing. I don't accept this bu**Poopie about being under no obligation to accept it because they bloody well should be and it's a poor indictment of Rigondeauxs character if he's not willing to do it as it was on Pacquiaos. The sport is better off without those who make no effort to clean it up.

Unfortunately Chris, Donaire also said it was Rigondeaux's team who told Donaire that VADA testing was required, now he is backing out.

Imperial Ghosty wrote:Chris I understand you're trying to play devils advocate but everyone knows what they're going to have to do to fight Donaire and that is accept VADA testing. I don't accept this bu**Poopie about being under no obligation to accept it because they bloody well should be and it's a poor indictment of Rigondeauxs character if he's not willing to do it as it was on Pacquiaos. The sport is better off without those who make no effort to clean it up.

Totally agree, I'm all for seeing the other side of the story, but when the one side is refusing drug testing then there isn't really a leg to stand on. All boxers should be tested 24/7 this is probably the most dangerous sport in the world, lives are at stake. If you cheat in a 100m race, it isn't a life or death situation. It is absolutely disgusting that this happens in boxing.

This is also in light of YET ANOTHER drug cheat who has just been caught. Mickey Bey failed a drug test because he had a 30-1 testosterone level.....

http://www.boxingnews24.com/2013/02/mickey-bey-fails-drug-test/

Not really playing Devil's Advocate, Ghosty, just highlighting that, in the interests of fairness, Rigondeaux or his team should at least be allowed to put forward a defence for this. It may well be a poor one, but they should still be allowed to air it all the same.

Would all fighters be subjected to obligatory VADA style testing in an ideal world? Yes, absolutely. But as it stands, that's not what the rules say and, as harsh as it sounds, Donaire runs the risk of missing out on an opponent or two here or there as a result of his alliance with VADA. Totally wrong and terribly unfair on him, I agree. But at the end of the day, Donaire and his team don't make the universal rules for everyone.

As I said above, if Ridondeaux has previously agreed to VADA style testing but is backing out now, it's disappointing and there's every right to question why. But I'd just prefer to see his own side of the story before setting myself up as judge and jury.

I'd be backing what Donaire and his team said regardless though Chris so whatever the excuse is makes no difference to me.

Very disappointing that the fight looks like its off. But, you've got to respect Donnaire's stance on this.

pretty much boxing is the new cycling

Rigo might be using the drug issue as a way to wriggle out of the fight.

He's hardly been all out looking for the best challengers since going pro.

Money could also be an issue, throw Arum into the mix and anything is possible.

[quote="BoxingFan88"]

Imperial Ghosty wrote:This is also in light of YET ANOTHER drug cheat who has just been caught. Mickey Bey failed a drug test because he had a 30-1 testosterone level.....

http://www.boxingnews24.com/2013/02/mickey-bey-fails-drug-test/

And Bey is trained by none other than Floyd 'TAKE THE TEST' Mayweather Sr. proves how much BS little Floyd's 'clean up boxing' shtick was!

Not boxing, but apparently police found testosterone and needles at the Oscar Pistorius crime scene. It seems pretty clear that many, many athletes are using testosterone enhancement therapies.

No issue now it was a misunderstanding

The drama, however, was taken care of later in the day. According to Arum, the issue was not that Rigondeaux was unwilling to be tested, but that he wanted the VADA contract translated into Spanish so he could understand what he was signing.

"We got that resolved and we have a fight," Arum said.

Fair enough in my book.

BoxingFan88 wrote:No issue now it was a misunderstanding

The drama, however, was taken care of later in the day. According to Arum, the issue was not that Rigondeaux was unwilling to be tested, but that he wanted the VADA contract translated into Spanish so he could understand what he was signing.

"We got that resolved and we have a fight," Arum said.

Fair enough in my book.

Thats good to hear.

Just an arum smokescreen. Rigo is a drug cheat. Hang him and kill his first born.
None of this innocent til proven guilty lefty guardian reading rubbish from Chris.

milkyboy wrote:Just an arum smokescreen. Rigo is a drug cheat. Hang him and kill his first born.
None of this innocent til proven guilty lefty guardian reading rubbish from Chris.

What has mackem done to you?

Fair point, scrub that and kill his second born instead

Agreed we can do without Lumbering Jack.

All is forgiven.

Looks like Donaire was jumping the gun

Boxtthis wrote:Not boxing, but apparently police found testosterone and needles at the Oscar Pistorius crime scene. It seems pretty clear that many, many athletes are using testosterone enhancement therapies.

His defence team claim it's not testosterone but some kind of herbal remedy?!?!?!!?. I would have thought that given his high profile, Pistorius would be getting tested as regulalry as Usain Bolt and would struggle to get by the doping people

Perfect excuse for Donaire not to take the fight.

He doesn't make the rules. He needs to get off his high horse. Is he going to use this excuse to avoid people in future?

Of course the great Nonito Donaire is scared stiff of Rigondeaux.

I'm glad you agree

Donaire is going to pancake him Mackem, its going to be a painful watch for you

Decentish article from boxing scene, including a Conte interview.

http://www.boxingscene.com/conte-donaire-rigondeaux-no-signature-no-presser--62586

It seems Rigo signed the contract, but wanted the additional (and separate) condition regarding VADA testing translated to Spanish before he signed it.

It was silly of Rigo's team to insist the supplements were sent to them for testing. Who's going to send dodgy supplements on request, surelly they will send the good ones.

I wouldn't be surprised if the supplements that Conte supplies are one step ahead of VADA tests anyway ("Legal" but imparting huge benefit), perhaps Rigo's team will get the supplements analysed and have them cloned. This might even up the odds a little bit, but like i say, I doubt Conte would send the "good stuff" for analyses.


With reference to the link at interview, Conte's last statement really throws me...."I want to give props to Donaire and Rigo for doing VADA testing"

I thought Rigo's team hadn't agreed to VADA testing until the documents were translated into Spanish and thats why Donaire called the fight off?

TheMackemMawler wrote:Decentish article from boxing scene, including a Conte interview.

http://www.boxingscene.com/conte-donaire-rigondeaux-no-signature-no-presser--62586

It seems Rigo signed the contract, but wanted the additional (and separate) condition regarding VADA testing translated to Spanish before he signed it.

It was silly of Rigo's team to insist the supplements were sent to them for testing. Who's going to send dodgy supplements on request, surelly they will send the good ones.

I wouldn't be surprised if the supplements that Conte supplies are one step ahead of VADA tests anyway ("Legal" but imparting huge benefit), perhaps Rigo's team will get the supplements analysed and have them cloned. This might even up the odds a little bit, but like i say, I doubt Conte would send the "good stuff" for analyses.


With reference to the link at interview, Conte's last statement really throws me...."I want to give props to Donaire and Rigo for doing VADA testing"

I thought Rigo's team hadn't agreed to VADA testing until the documents were translated into Spanish and thats why Donaire called the fight off?

Rigo verbally agreed to VADA testing, so maybe that is why?

Maybe 88.

On a side note...

Twitter is tasteless.

Sportsmen should refrain from implying ill deed by another through it's pages.

It's classes..... and it stinks of the sticky brown stuff thrown up when seed planting.

I imagine it's been signed now, so they have both agreed, is that not the case?

I don't know?

I've spent a few minutes searching the web but can't find any up to date news. Anyone know anything?

Well, how long does it take to get a translator and sign a piece of paper?

The fight is definitely on. Its a very good fight and the drug testing wrangle has been sorted out.

After some tense moments with the fight hanging in the balance, the camp of WBA super bantamweight champion and former two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist Guillermo Rigondeaux signed off on the use of VADA testing in advance of the April unification against WBO jr featherweight champion Nonito “Filipino Flash” Donaire to take place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Bob Arum: You’ve heard a lot about drug testing. The fighters want this to be a completely clean fight. So they’ve signed a protocol that says that the drug testing organization, which is VADA, and any other organization which might be added, will submit its reports to the fight camps, to the promoter, in confidence, and to the New York State Athletic Commission who will be the only entity that has jurisdiction over what action if any to take based on those reports. And we feel confident in that system, putting it on an orderly basis because we have confidence in Melvina Lathan, we have confidence in the medical staff of the NYSAC, maybe not so much the eye doctors, but all the rest of the guys (laughter). The eye doctors are very good although we had a little disagreement a while ago (a reference to the Antonio Margarito situation in 2011). We really believe this is the way to go for the sport. We advocate drug testing, but we want it to be done in an orderly manner, not with the wildness that we’ve seen with some of these events in the past.

Rigondeaux trainer Pedro Diaz: Nonito Donaire claimed that Guillermo Rigondeaux didn’t want to do anti-doping testing. We are willing to do random testing at any time from now to the day of the fight. I’d like something to be very clear. In the morning the news came out that we don’t want to do the testing and in the afternoon they said VADA was going to be doing the testing. That’s fine and we accept that…VADA is an association that’s voluntary. USADA is an organization that does testing for Olympic athletes in the United States and is also the agency that the best boxer in the ring for business uses, which is Floyd Mayweather, and also another great star Miguel Cotto and other athletes. That’s why we proposed to Nonito and his team that we are prepared for USADA to be part of this testing also. They can conduct urine and blood tests randomly whenever that want rom now to the day of the fight.

Guillermo Rigondeaux: On April 13 the fight is confirmed. We’re moving forward. Get ready for April 13.

Nonito Donaire: They’re gonna train hard, I’m gonna train hard. April 13 is the day people will know who is the best 122-pounder….I still believe he needs experience.

(from fightnews.com)

Don't go forgetting Abner Mares now Nonito.

Mares is tailor made for Donaire. He will blast him out in the same way he done Montiel and Vic.

Anselmo Moreno could be an interesting fight for either Rigo or Donaire from a styles point of view.

I'm not sure who he is Ghosty.

The guy Mares beat last time out, a world class bantamweight with no lack of skill, check him out.

Moreno is absolutely brilliant, very classy could cause either guys plenty of problems would back Nonito to beat him and would maybe make Rigondaeux a slight favourite without much conviction mind you.

Good to see this sorted. And credit to both fighters re testing. If rigo fights smart we could have a cracker on our hands, if he doesn't it could be a short night, but looking forward to it.

I was ever so slightly disappointed with Moreno against Mares, to be honest. Mares was nothing special that night and if Moreno can't get any kind of offense going against such a stand-in-front, come-forward fighter then I doubt he's going to get to grips with Rigondeaux, never mind Donaire.

Granted, he did have a bit of an off night and Mares' dirty know how didn't help matters, but he'd need to find an extra 20% on top of that showing to even be competitive against these two, I think. Although he's a fine technician, he's not the quickest and I think both Donaire and Rigondeaux would outspeed him as much as anything else, not dissimilar to something like Curry-Starling.

Don't ever mention curry starling again Chris, the thought of truss unbuckling his trousers is not one I want to ever enter my head

Duly noted, Milky!

88Chris05 wrote:I was ever so slightly disappointed with Moreno against Mares, to be honest. Mares was nothing special that night and if Moreno can't get any kind of offense going against such a stand-in-front, come-forward fighter then I doubt he's going to get to grips with Rigondeaux, never mind Donaire.

Granted, he did have a bit of an off night and Mares' dirty know how didn't help matters, but he'd need to find an extra 20% on top of that showing to even be competitive against these two, I think. Although he's a fine technician, he's not the quickest and I think both Donaire and Rigondeaux would outspeed him as much as anything else, not dissimilar to something like Curry-Starling.

Yeah, I would mostly agree to be honest, I feel that Moreno is always going to be better against technical fighters and guys that rough him up a bit are going to cause him a fair few problems, I felt that at the time to be honest. I think without a doubt though, he can still cause Donaire and Rigo problems and ask questions, and I have to be totally honest, it's not as though Rigo has answered a heap of questions himself...

True enough, Alex, but there's a reason the Donaire-Rigondeaux fight has been in much higher demand than Donaire-Mares or Donaire-Moreno; Rigondeaux is just the more gifted fighter. Normally a top three pound for pounder would be slated for taking on an eleven-fight, relative novice, regardless of their amateur career, but we're not talking about any ordinary eleven-fight professional in Rigondeaux.

You know, it's interesting how quickly consensus on an upcoming fight can change. In mid to late 2010, for instance, I imagine that the predictions for a potential DeGale-Groves fight would have yielded a fairly even split between the two in terms of who the fans were backing. In November / December 2010, however, Groves unexpectedly struggles and totters near a dangerous edge against Anderson, DeGale shines against Smith and all of a sudden, hey presto, almost everyone is hanging their shirt on DeGale.

And oh how wrong many of us were.

I'm a bit mindful of this when I think of the Donaire-Rigondeaux bout. Backtrack eight months or so, after Donaire, while still winning well enough, looked a wee bit flat in comparison to his normal self in getting past Narvaez and Vazquez Jr in successive fights, and just after Rigondeaux had shone against Kennedy on the Bradley-Pacquiao undercard. Back then, I distinctly remember a fair few backing Rigondeaux to upset Nonito, or at least be the man to give him the scare of his life at 122 lb. Donaire gets his mojo back against Nishioka and Arce, Rigondeaux has a couple of stuttering moments against Marroquin and, once again, the perception has totally changed and most are predicting that Rignondeaux is for the slaughter, and a quick slaugher at that, as if he's not fit to share the ring with Donaire.

I think people are getting slightly carried away in terms of describing the supposed gulf between these two. Maybe we're overrating Donaire, maybe we're underrating Rigondeaux (I think it's largely the latter, to be fair), but don't be surprised if the Cuban causes Donaire a world of trouble - and I wouldn't be totally dumfounded if he even managed to go the whole hog and nick the upset.

I'm still doing with Donaire, don't get me wrong, but I don't think this is going to be the mismatch that many are anticipating.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say that Donaire is going to win and win big.

I've now watched a little bit of Moreno Ghosty.

Gangly, reasonably skillful, rangy, not much pop.

He gets beaten at his own game by Rigo.

He gets beaten at his own game and roughed up by Donaire.