Guillermo Rigondeaux tweets post-fight jab at John Riel Casimero: 'He is no Pacquiao'

Despite losing in their bout, Guillermo Rigondeaux said John Riel Casimero is still far from the greatness of Manny Pacquiao. Stephanie Trapp/Showtime

By Ivan Saldajeno

MANILA--Even if their boxing match is already over, Guillermo Rigondeaux seemingly took his fight against John Riel Casimero to social media, insisting that the World Boxing Organization bantamweight champion is still not at par with former eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao.

“'He won' according to the judges, that is fine by me. Boxing has never been fair to me at the professional level. But he is no Pacquiao and my chin is still on my head,” Rigondeaux, who lost for only the second time in his career after falling to Casimero on Sunday (Philippine Time) at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, said as part of a Twitter thread.

The 40-year-old Rigondeaux, who failed in what could be his only bid to overtake a former victim, Nonito Donaire, as the oldest reigning world bantamweight champ, began his post-match barrage at Casimero by saying he expected Casimero to go all out at him.

"I was expecting a guy ready to blow my chin away and send me to retirement," Rigondeaux said.

It looked like the case when Casimero went on an attack late into Round 1 that seemed to have knocked Rigondeaux down only that the referee ruled it as a slip.

Rigondeaux would stay up until the final bell, but as the bout went on, he seemingly resorted to mainly circling the ring just after a jab, looking to frustrate Casimero in the mind games.

Tim Cheatham scored the bout 115-113 for Rigondeaux, but his fellow judges, Daniel Sandoval and Robert Hoyle, both had it for Casimero, who kept his WBO belt via split decision.

Rigondeaux, a known technical fighter, then hit out at the boxing fans who were frustrated at his game plan against Casimero.

"You can point fingers at my style all you want but everything I got I fought for it. Nothing was given," Rigondeaux.

He then implied that Pacquiao is a great champion but not Casimero.

"Congratulations to the Filipino fans. You have a great champion, his name is Pacquiao," Rigondeaux concluded.

Reacting to the tweets, MP Promotions president Sean Gibbons said that Rigondeaux--or at least his social media team--was just purely all talk.

"His Twitter account talked a lot of s***, but he didn't back it up," Gibbons said in the post-fight press conference.

He even believes Rigondeaux is not really behind the tweets but a member of his social media team who is in disbelief that the boxer lost.

"Whoever is on his Twitter account needs to check with him next time, because we thought the guy on Twitter was the guy that was coming to fight--the one that was talking all these blah blah blah. Someone better check who does his Twitter because I know it's not him," Gibbons further said.

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