By Rick Reeno

Two-time Olympic gold medal winner Guillermo Rigondeaux (15-0, 10KOs) has had a rough two weeks. Due to his inactivity, he was stripped of his WBA/WBO super bantamweight world titles. Rigondeaux was last in action on December 31 of last year, when he knocked out Hisashi Amagasa in Osaka, Japan.

Rigondeaux will return to the ring on December 4th in Canada, when he faces Mario Briones for the vacant WBC Latino super bantamweight title. If successful, the WBC has already ordered Rigondeaux to face Rey Vargas in a final eliminator for a shot at reigning champion Julio Ceja.

The Cuban boxer's former promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, had tried his best to finalize an agreement for a dream fight between Rigondeaux and WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (4-1, 2KOs).  

According to Arum, the fight fell through because of Rigondeaux's longtime promoter, Miami-based Caribe Promotions. He says Caribe was asking for a very unrealistic sum of money to make the Lomachenko fight happen.

"The poor guy. I'm one of the few guys who likes Rigondeaux, but he has these guys with him - the Caribe guys - who are not professionals in boxing, who have unbelievable expectations," Arum said.

"Like, they said 'we can get millions of dollars for the [Lomachenko] fight.' And I said 'from where?' And he says 'Cuba.' I said 'what are you f***ing crazy? There is still an embargo.'"

Win or lose, a fight with Lomachenko would have catapulted Rigondeaux back in the spotlight, says Arum.

"The point is, if he fights Lomachenko and he loses the fight - he would still be back [in the mix]. He's not going to lose the fight like one-sided or whatever - it's going to be a real good fight. The kid wants the fight. He called me up and in broken English said ' I want fight Lomachenko.' He's a nice guy," Arum said.

Arum's relationship with Rigondeaux ended after Top Rank was unable to secure television dates for the Cuban boxer. After a lackluster victory over Joseph Agbeko in an HBO televised main event in December of 2013, the network refused to purchase any of Rigondeaux's future fights.  

"If he had some people who could really talk to him [about his style]. These Cuban guys....in the amateurs they would win the first two rounds, then coast and win the third round close, and then in the fourth they ran away - they didn't give a sh*t because they already had the fight won. And then they fight as professionals in the same way," Arum said.

"I remember when we had a show the Atlantic City. We Kirkland and Tapia and then we had Rigondeaux and Agbeko, who went on after Tapia. By the time the Rigondeaux fight was over, there was a 100 people left [in the venue]. Rigondeaux wouldn't take any chances."