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Tomorrow in the early hours of the morning here in the United States of America -- THE GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH -- Zou Shiming and Guillermo Rigondeaux and a bunch of other people you don't care that much about will be fighting in Macau, as Top Rank is back over there juicing some cashola out of their casino industry and the fact that they keep showing an interest in boxing, which is good.
Here are five reasons to watch.
1. Zou Shiming is eventually going to lose before he can truly cash out
Zou Shiming isn't really all that great, when you remember that this is a 33-year-old two-time Olympic gold medalist whose second gold medal was pretty questionable, and also when you throw in the fact that he can't punch, seems overly confident in his ability, and hasn't faced anyone very good yet, to me, all the signs are there for a big stinking disaster sooner than later.
Will that come Saturday? Probably not. Luis De La Rosa (23-3-1, 13 KO) has a decent record on paper, but he's got a very Colombian pro record, as his wins have come over fighters who entered the bouts with a combined record of 126-290-33, plus seven fighters who were making their pro debuts.
De La Rosa's three losses came to Raul Garcia (SD-12, 2010), Merlito Sabillo (TKO-8, 2013), and Moises Fuentes (TKO-1, 2013).
Zou Shiming is every bit the cash cow fighter that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr was earlier in his career, only his U.S. push isn't as dramatic, and he's got Olympic and amateur success instead of just a famous dad. But I personally don't see much real success in his pro boxing future. He's being used to help establish Macau. He's going to lose, possibly before he gets to the top level (where he'll probably be internally expected to lose). But it likely won't be this fight.
2. Guillermo Rigondeaux is good at boxing
He's a top five pound-for-pound boxer who is really no more "boring" than Nonito Donaire, the guy he smoked last year, or a lot of other fighters, but he also totally lacks personality or any kind of charisma. It's not just that he doesn't speak English and doesn't fight for knockouts. Rigondeaux comes off as aloof and bored, perhaps because this is all so relatively easy for him, as it seems at this stage, boxing is basically second nature. He's yet to meet anyone that really tests him in the pros, with Ricardo Cordoba coming closest, and that was five years ago now.
Sod Kokietgym isn't going to do much with Rigondeaux in Macau, most likely, but Rigondeuax is fighting, and he's a great boxer, so, you know, there's that.
3. You have insomnia
Ugh, you never sleep well, and you were on WebMD a couple weeks ago, and you probably are an insomniac, and you'll probably be up anyway, because of the insomnia and all.
4. You always wake up early anyway, why not on Saturday, too?
Your body clock is what it is now that you work that profession of yours five days a week, and you know you're just going to wake up at 6am anyway, so ugh, whatever, you might as well watch this show. You're up! Of course you are! Because you can never goddamn sleep in even if you try to sleep in, goddamn it!
5. You might as well start welcoming your Macau overlords
Macau is going to rule the boxing world sooner or later, as the sport continues to fade out in the United States and promoters and fighters need new places to make lots of money that is becoming increasingly hard to justify in the U.S., given the lack of overall interest in the sport that isn't getting any better as days go by. So get used to this time zone. Prepare yourself.