By Sean Jones: Guillermo Rigondeaux surprised a lot of people last Saturday by quitting on his stool after round 6 against WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (10-1, 8 KOs0 in their fight at Madison Square Garden in New York. Rigondeaux only connected on 15 punches in the 6 round fight before quitting on his stool.
Rigondeaux said the reason he quit was because he injured his left hand hitting Lomachenko on the top of his head in round 2. Lomachenko’s promoter Bob Arum has doubts whether Rigondeaux was really injured. Arum notes that Rigondeaux wasn’t landing punches in the fight against the illusive Lomachenko, so he doesn’t think he did have a hand injury.
Arum sees Rigondeaux as quitting because he was bewildered and was going to get knocked out sooner or later by Lomachenko. So, instead of staying around until the bitter end, Rigondeaux took the way out of the fight by pulling a ‘no mas’ to get out with his dignity somewhat intact.
“He didn’t hit him with a punch. Where did he hurt his hand?” said Arum in casting doubt about Rigondeaux’s hand injury.
Rigondeaux did throw punches in round 1, but he stopped letting his hands go starting in round 2. If there was an injury in the 2nd round, as Rigondeaux claims, him not throwing shots from that round would back up his claim. When a fighter all of a sudden stops throwing punches, it’s either because of fatigue or injury. Rigondeaux clearly wasn’t tired by round 2, so he might have really injured his left hand. Unlike fighters that are equally adept at using both hands for punching, Rigondeaux is mostly a one-handed fighter. He uses his left hand for all of his power punches Rigondeaux uses his right hand to jab and throw hooks to the body.
“This guy is super human,” said Arum about Lomachenko. “Rigondeaux was not a ham and egger. Rigondeaux was one of the best fighters. Nobody came close to beating Rigondeaux. He fought a guy like Donaire and destroyed Donaire. Rigondeaux goes in with Lomachenko, and he’s totally bewildered. He can’t hit with anything. This wasn’t the first guy he made quit, because they can’t do anything with him. They’re getting hit and they’re going to get knocked out. I’ll put him in with anybody at 135. They’re getting pretty good money, they’re getting hit, they’re going to get knocked out, so it’s probably smart for them to quit,” said Arum.
Lomachenko is fighting guys that are quitting, but he’s not facing the really good fighters that are uninjured at the top of their games. The guys that quit against Lomachenko are these fighters:
Rigondeaux, Jason Sosa, Miguel Marriaga and Nicholas Walters. Lomachenko will have to prove that he can beat better fighters his own size before you can make a big deal about him having a special gift to make his opponents quit.
I’d like to see Lomachenko fight these top talents:
• Miguel Berchelt
• Miguel Roman
• Francisco Vargas
• Mikey Garcia
• Robert Easter Jr.
• Jorge Linares
• Jose Carlos Ramirez
“In March or April,” said Arum when asked Lomachenko will fight next.
Arum was still mentioning Orlando Salido for Lomachenko immediately after the Lomachenko-Rigondeaux fight ended. However, Salido has since been stopped by Miguel ‘Mickey’ Roman last Saturday night. Salido is now obviously out of the picture for Lomachenko’s March or April fight If Arum is going to pool from the super featherweight division in picking out Lomachenko’s next opponent, then we don’t see him moving up to the lightweight division until the second half of 2018 if then.