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RING junior featherweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux could face WBO mandatory challenger Chris Avalos on Nov. 22 either in Miami or the Dominican Republic, according to WBO general secretary Jose Izquierdo and Rigondeaux’s manager, Gary Hyde.

The date and venues were proposed by Caribe Promotions on Friday after having posted the winning purse bid of $317,777.77 as the sole participant in Puerto Rico.

“We held a purse bid at 1 p.m. at our WBO headquarters and Caribe Promotions was the sole participant at the purse bid,” said Izquierdo. “They won the purse bid and submitted a proposed date of Nov. 22. They also proposed two different venues, the first one, the Marlins baseball stadium in Miami, Fla., and the second one was Hard Rock Hotel in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.”

The purse split breaks down to 75 percent for Rigondeaux ($238,333.32) compared to 25 percent for Avalos ($79,444.45) “as per our WBO rules,” said Izquierdo.

“They have 10 days to negotiate and submit the contracts to the WBO,” said Izquierdo, “and 45 to 90 days to make the fight happen. So they have up until Dec. 19 to make the fight happen.”

Rigondeaux (14-0, 9 knockouts), who also holds the WBA belt, was last in action for a first round knockout of Sod Kokietgym on a Top Rank Promotions card in Macao, China in July.

Rigondeaux ended a 36-0-1 unbeaten streak for Kokietgym and was coming off consecutive unanimous decisions over Nonito Donaire in April 2013 and Joseph Agbeko in December.

Rigondeaux, 33, won the RING and WBO titles in the Donaire fight and the WBA title against Rico Ramos in Jan. 2012 in his ninth pro bout.

Avalos (24-2, 18 KOs), 24, has won five consecutive fights, three by knockout, since falling by split decision to Jhonatan Romero in December 2011.

After defeating Kokietgym, Rigondeaux called out WBC and IBF counterparts Leo Santa Cruz and Kiko Martinez, which are unification opponents Hyde would like to pursue.

Most recently in the ring after last Saturday’s second round stoppage of Manuel Roman, Santa Cruz has also been calling out Rigondeaux.

“I don’t believe Leo Santa Cruz really wants to fight Guillermo Rigondeaux because if he did, then he would have been talking to us long before now,” said Hyde, adding that Rigondeaux is still being handled by Caribe Promotions although his fight with Kokietgym was his final bout under Top Rank.

“It’s very easy to stand in there and to say before all of the media that, ‘Oh, yeah, I want to fight Rigondeaux because the fans want it,’ but you must fight Rigondeaux because you want it. I wouldn’t take notice with Santa Cruz making a bogus calling out like that at this point.”

http://ringtv.craveonline.com/news/356691-guillermo-rigondeaux-chris-avalos-on-nov-22