Rigondeaux to return in January

Rigondeaux has been out of action since last December

Guillermo Rigondeaux’s return to the ring, originally planned for this month, has been pushed back to January. Alex Bernote, who co-manages “El Chacal” alongside Luis DeCubas Jr., tells ESPN that he will appear on one of three PBC cards scheduled for the coming month.

The potential destinations:

• January 13th in Los Angeles as part of the Jose Uzcategui-Caleb Plant card. The undercard currently includes Brandon Figueroa vs. Moises Flores and unbeaten Joey Flores against TBA.
• Pacquiao-Broner on January 19th.
• January 26th at Barclays Center ahead of Keith Thurman’s return against Josesito Lopez. The only other fight scheduled on that card is Adam Kownacki against Gerald Washington.

I would wager it’ll either be the 13th or 26th; putting Rigondeaux (17-1, 11 KO) on pay-per-view is a demonstrably bad idea. Of course, that’s assuming they don’t just stick him on the untelevised prelims, but that seems unbecoming for the former champ.

PBC has some solid super bantamweights in their stable, including the aforementioned Figueroa alongside former champions Hugo Ruiz and Jonathan Guzman. The January fight will obviously be a tune-up, but he has options for later next year.