Casimero to go body-snatching, calls Rigondeaux fight 'easy work'

HOLLYWOOD — A super-confident John Riel Casimero stuck to his pre-fight prediction of stopping master boxer Guillermo Rigondeaux in his WBO bantamweight title defense at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson City, California on Saturday (Sunday, Manila time).

The key, according to Casimero’s head trainer Nonoy Neri, is to work the crafty Cuban’s body the entire fight.

“Bakit natin susuntukin yung ulo eh ang liit ng ulo. Hindi natin pwede suntukin yung ulo, yung katawan dapat (Why should we target the head when it’s small and hard to hit? We cannot go for the head. We should go to the body instead),” Neri told The STAR’s Joaquin Henson after the official weigh-in ceremony at the Hyatt Regency LAX Friday (Saturday in Manila).

The 31-year-old Casimero tipped the scales exactly at the bantamweight limit of 118 pounds while Rigondeaux registered half a pound below the maximum. The Filipino slugger was seen immediately chugging a bottle of Gatorade, a sign that he had to work hard to make weight.

Casimero earlier vowed to make Rigondeaux, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-division world champion, his seventh straight knockout victim

“Eight letters, two words: Easy work,” Casimero bragged.

But in truth, it is instead easier said than done against Rigondeaux, whose boring but methodical style makes him a tough opponent and someone who had been avoided by many fighters not ready to risk their records.

The 40-year-old Rigondeaux holds victories over Filipino fighters Nonito Donaire and Drian Francisco, and has likewise promised to make Casimero — whom he referred to as a “payaso” or clown — his third victim from the Philippines.

He has not let Casimero’s verbal jabs get in his head.

“Whatever was said between Casimero and me up to this point is water under the bridge,” he later said on Twitter. “May the best man win… I will do everything within my power to be that man tomorrow for my fans, my people and my family.”

At the opening bell, it will be Casimero’s heavy hands against Rigondeaux’s surgical precision — an appetizing prelude to the Manny Pacquiao-Yordenis Ugas championship bout scheduled next week.

Interestingly, both fights pit a Filipino against a Cuban.