Casey confident he can upset the odds

BOXING WBA WORLD TITLE FIGHT (Live coverage RTÉ Two 10pm, Tonight):WILLIE CASEY has been hearing too much about his opponent. In the approach to the biggest fight of his life, tales of the prowess of Cuban World champion Guillermo Rigondeaux have been burning his ears.

Two Olympic gold medals, two World Championships and now, like Casey, unbeaten as a professional, Rigondeaux arrives to Citywest with a god-like amateur status as well as the professional WBA Super Bantamweight title.

“I’m not getting into that ring to take away his Olympic gold medals,” said Casey. “I’m going in there to take away his WBA world title.”

Ireland’s Katie Taylor recently sparred with Rigondeaux over four two-minute rounds.

“I couldn’t lay a glove on him,” said Ireland’s most decorated boxer, who is also on tonight’s card against reigning Spanish champion Maria Del Carmen Moreno. “He’s fast and his footwork is unbelievable.”

That would have been a sight. The best female boxer in the world with the man widely regarded as the best male amateur prior to his defection from Cuba to the US in 2009, where he signed with Arena and settled in Miami.

Rigondeaux has fought professionally seven times, most recently against Ricardo Cordoba, the Panamanian Bernard Dunne defeated to win his world title.

That bout was won on a tough split decision with Cordoba going down in the fourth round and Rigondeaux hitting the canvas in the sixth.

But Casey, who yesterday weighed in at 55kg to Rigondeaux’s 54.9kg, was having none of his opponent’s credentials waved in his face.

“This is boxing. Anything can happen in boxing,” said Casey.

“Regardless of how skilful, how good and how technical he is . . . I respect everything he has achieved.

“He can have all his Olympic gold medals and he can keep all his speed work and his technical work and all the hopping and skipping he does around the ring. All I want is to win that fight.”

Rigondeaux is trained by Ronnie Shields, a respected and successful former fighter, who lost a box-off with Sugar Ray Leonard to go to the 1976 Olympic Games. Leonard later took the gold medal.

Shields has trained a string of world champions and comes to Dublin cautious but confident the speed and technical ability of his man will shape the fight.

Speaking yesterday, Shields was considering how his man would “defuse the energy” of the home crowd in the early rounds, and once he did that things would fall into place.

It will be a contrast of styles, and Casey, who would probably prefer if the fight were being staged in a phone box, will have to try to make the ring smaller and prevent the slick champion from moving.

One criticism of Rigondeaux is he still fights like an amateur scoring points; however, it is generally held he does that brilliantly.

Dunne will readily testify about how difficult it is to beat Cordoba.

“I’m more than ready at this stage,” said Casey. “I’ve said it 101 times over these last couple of weeks. I’ll do whatever I have to do. I’ll do what I’ve been trained to do, to keep that belt in Ireland.

“I feel confident and relaxed. No nerves, not yet. Everything is completed and I’m eager to get in there and put on a show for everyone. I’ve covered everything.

“We did all our track running, all our sprinting, all our conditioning, our pad work, our sparring. We covered everything. Come the fight we’ll be ready for anything that comes on to us.”

And so he showed in winning the Prizefighter television series last May as a late arrival after Wayne McCullough pulled out because of injury.

Prior to that he had only five fights and, if anything, showed then that he can win against the odds.

In an incredible semi-final fight against Barnsley’s Josh Wale, there were 532 punches thrown over three rounds.

Since then the 29-year-old’s rise has been meteoric, and a defeat of Paul Hyland last November for the European belt earned him tonight’s shot at The Ring’s number six-rated super bantamweight for the world belt.