Lomachenko MUCH bigger than Rigondeaux

By Boxing News - 12/07/2017 - Comments

Image: Lomachenko MUCH bigger than Rigondeaux

By Chris Williams: Vasyl Lomachenko and Guillermo Rigondeaux met for their final press conference on Thursday in New York head of their fight this Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York.

During the face off, Lomachenko, 5’6”, not only looked considerably taller than the 5’4” Rigondeaux, he also appeared to be much heavier than him. Lomachenko clearly hasn’t started cutting weight to make the 130-lb. weigh-in limit for Friday. Lomachenko looked like he was well over 140 pounds. The size difference between the two was tremendous. Rigondeaux clearly looks to be 2 divisions below Lomachenko if not more than that.

Lomachenko’s promoter Bob Arum, who will be turning 86 this week, was calling it a fight of historic proportions. It’s interesting that Arum was trumpeting the fight so badly, as there was seemingly little effort put into the promotion/marketing of the fight, which will be televised on ESPN this Saturday night.

”This fight is so historic that years from now this fight between Lomachenko and Rigondeaux will be something they write and talk about,” said Arum at the final press conference.

If there isn’t a robbery of Rigondeaux, the fight should be okay. Lomachenko is Top Rank, while Rigondeaux is the B-side fighter not signed with Top Rank. It has the recipe for a robbery. Hopefully the judges do an excellent job of scoring the fight and don’t ruin it by giving the win to the wrong fighter.

This is the biggest fight by far of Lomachenko’s career. I wouldn’t say it’s the biggest for Rigondeaux, because he already beat Nonito Donaire by a one-sided 12 round decision in 2013, and that fight had a much bigger promotional effort by Top Rank. Lomachenko has been slow to step up to lightweight to face Mikey Garcia and the biggest names in that division. Lomachenko has been talking about wanting to move up in weight for over a year now, but he keeps dragging his feet about it.
”It will be a very intelligent fight, a brain fight,” said Lomachenko. ”This fight very important fight for me. A lot of fans and media want this fight. If it’s a special fight for them it’s a special fight for me,” said Lomachenko.

”I don’t like to talk a lot. My opponent is a great boxer. I will express myself in the ring,” said Rigondeaux.

Rigondeaux has been doing most of the talking in the buildup to the fight. He’s shown more personality and given fresh sound bites to the boxing media compared to Lomachenko, who has been repeating himself with each interview.

YouTube video