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Mike CoppingerESPN
Former Champion supervisor Alex Boronte instructed ESPN that Guillermo Rigondeaux misplaced practically 80% of his sight after an accident with a stress cooker late Thursday afternoon at his Miami house.
The 41-year-old was cooking Cuban black beans when one thing went incorrect, inflicting the stress cooker to blow up. His supervisor mentioned boiling water splashed into his eyes, inflicting him to have two severely burned corneas. His chest additionally burned.
The 2-time Olympic gold medalist from Cuba has been transferred to Kendall Regional Medical Heart, Buronte mentioned. Rigondo’s eyes had been injected with anesthesia and bandaged earlier than he was launched Friday at roughly 4 p.m. ET.
“He is solely executed it one million occasions,” Buronte mentioned of one among Rigondeaux’s cooking favorites. “They make bombs out of [pressure cookers]. If a type of beans will get clogged up the place the steam will come out, it is like a bomb. It might have killed him.”
There may be optimism. The cornea usually begins to regenerate inside 48 to 72 hours, however the course of can take as much as two weeks. His supervisor mentioned Rigondeu might certainly see daylight and shadows.
“The following week to 10 days will actually decide his preventing profession and future as a result of that is when the cornea must regenerate itself and he can see or not see,” Buronte mentioned. “However the meeting from the final 24 hours, he is doing a very good job.”
Rigondeaux, a 122 pound outdated champ who has been revered for his defensive capabilities for generations, is without doubt one of the best novice fighters of all time. The most important win of his profession got here in 2013, when he captured the Fighter of the Yr title by Nonito Doner with a choice win.
Rigondeaux’s resume features a TKO loss to Vasiliy Lomachenko in 2017, and as he approaches his forty second birthday, he has misplaced two bouts in a row.
In a bid to grow to be the world welterweight champion, Rigondeaux (20-3, 13 KOs) dropped a controversial break up resolution to John Riel Casimero in August. Simply final Saturday in Dubai, Rigondo, the 10-1 favourite, was introduced down and aggravated by the unanimously introduced Vincent Astrolabio.
“He was as a consequence of battle earlier than the top of the yr, someday in August, so the following 72 hours are a very powerful,” Boronte mentioned. “He will get a bit depressed seeing his skill waning, however it’s largely psychological.
I requested him: Do you’re feeling outdated? “No, it isn’t like that,” he says. I do know he nonetheless has some skill as a result of he confirmed it within the ninth and tenth rounds [last week after being floored in Round 8]. I am positive he needs to battle once more. Battle once more and see the place he stands.”
