Team Rigondeaux is ready for Vasyl Lomachenko

By Boxing News - 07/10/2015 - Comments

By Chris Williams: After sitting idle for all of 2015 up to this point, WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (15-0, 10 KOs) could be moving up to featherweight to take on WBO featherweight champion Vasy Lomachenko (4-1, 2 KOs) at the full weight for the weight class without a catch-weight. Rigondeaux’s promoter Caribe Promotions sent out a Tweet on Friday, saying that they’re ready to fight for history.

The only question about the Rigondeaux-Lomachenko fight is whether Lomachenko’s promoters at Top Rank allow him to fight Rigondeaux. We already saw Rigondeaux reduce Top Rank fighter Nonito Donaire’s career to rubble after schooling him in 2013, and it might be that Top Rank won’t let Rigondeaux do that to another one of their highly hyped fighters in Lomachenko. The Ukrainian fighter was already exposed by Orlando Salido in March of 2014 in getting whipped by the Mexican warrior. If Rigondeaux whips Lomachenko too, it could send Lomachenko into the same status as Donaire with his career in shambles.

Rigondeaux must have scouted out Lomachenko well and figured that he’s a very beatable fighter despite being seen as the best fighter in the 126 pound division by a lot of boxing fans.

Rigondeaux-Lomachenko is a fight that could very well get made. Both guys are considered the best fighters in their respective divisions, and both of them are two-time Olympic gold medalists. Rigondeaux is from Cuba and Lomachenko from Ukraine.

The 27-year-old Lomachenko is seven years younger than the 34-year-old Rigondeaux, but he doesn’t have his hand speed or defensive skills despite being a lot younger. The 5’6” Lomachenko is two inches taller than the 5’4” Rigondeaux, but his reach is an inch shorter than the Cuban fighter. For every advantage Lomachenko has, Rigondeaux has advantages that negate the things Lomachenko has going for him.

Lomachenko and his manager are interested in unifying the titles at featherweight, but they’re in a tough situation given that the guys in that weight class aren’t lining up to agree to fight Lomachenko. IBF 126lb champion Lee Selby recently said he’ll looking to unify the title in three years from now after he’s had a lot of world title defenses. WBC champion Gary Russell Jr. already was beaten by Lomachenko in 2014, and he’s not likely to agree to fight him again. Nicholas Walters was recently stripped of his WBA title for coming in overweight for his fight against Miguel Marriaga.

Rigondeaux, 34, hasn’t had an interesting fight since he easily beat Nonito Donaire two years ago in 2013. Instead of the big fights coming after the win over Donaire, Rigondeaux has found himself virtually ignored by the top super bantamweights like Carl Frampton, Scott Quigg and Leo Santa Cruz. At this point it seems pretty clear that none of those fighters are likely going to fight Rigondeaux until he ages out and starts looking like a shot fighter.

That’s why it makes all the sense in the world for Rigondeaux to move up to featherweight to take the fight against Lomachenko, if only for this fight. Rigondeaux doesn’t walk around at 145 pounds like some of the featherweights do like Nicholas Walters. That’s why it makes more sense for Rigondeaux to take the fight with Lomachenko, beat him, and then move back down to super bantamweight. But if Rigondeaux can beat Lomachenko, then it can open up the possibility of a rematch between them.

Lomachenko has beaten Gamalier Rodriguez and Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo in his last two title defenses of his WBO title. Neither fight caught the attention of the boxing fans due to these guys being little known fighters who didn’t belong in the same ring with Lomachenko.
Rigondeaux has two consecutive knockouts over Hisashi Amagasa and Sod Kokietgym in his last two fights. Rigondeaux has intentionally been focusing on being more aggressive with his offense in order to be more exciting for fans, but it’s led to him getting hit a lot more than he normally does.



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