Boxer Guillermo Rigondeaux Suffers Serious Eye Injuries In Cooking Accident

Cuban professional boxer Guillermo Rigondeaux, a former world champion in the bantamweight and super bantamweight classes, suffered serious eye injuries as the result of a cooking accident at his home in Miami.

Rigondeaux's manager, Alex Bornote, said that a pressure cooker exploded in the ex-champion's face.

"When the pot exploded and we saw how Rigondeaux was left, we thought the worst," Bornote told Jorge Ebro of El Nuevo Herald (h/t TMZ Sports), "because his face and eyes looked very bad as a result of the impact of the explosion."

Bornote added they are hopeful tests reveal Rigondeaux can recover soon, but a lengthy surgery and recovery process could be in the works if tests show significant damage.

As noted by Ebro (h/t Hans Themistode of Boxing Insider), Rigondeaux was left with just 20 percent of his vision after the accident.

Rigondeaux is one of the most accomplished bantamweight fighters this century. He won Olympic gold in the bantamweight class at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Games. Rigondeaux also took home World Championship gold at bantamweight in 2001 and 2005.

Professionally, the 41-year-old has gone 20-3 with one no-contest. He started his career with 17 straight wins, a stretch that included a WBA super bantamweight title-match victory over Rico Ramos in January 2012.

He successfully retained the belt eight different times and also won the WBO and The Ring super bantamweight titles when he beat Nonito Donaire in April 2013.

After dominating at bantamweight, Rigondeaux moved up two weight classes for a new challenge. He took on junior lightweight Vasiliy Lomachenko for the WBO title but suffered his first career loss.

Rigondeaux then won three straight fights before losing two in a row. He fell to John Riel Casimero for the WBO bantamweight belt last August in before losing to Vincent Astrolabio in February.

ESPN currently ranks Rigondeaux as the No. 4 bantamweight in the world.