Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux – Official weights

By Boxing News - 12/08/2017 - Comments

Image: Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux – Official weights

By Chris Williams: Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KOs) had zero problems making weight for his contest for Saturday night against WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (9-1, 7 KOs) at Madison Square Garden in New York. Rigondeaux weighed in well under the limit for the division in weighing 128.4 pounds. His opponent Lomachenko weighed a little bit more at 129 lbs.

Rigondeaux has a lot to gain if he wins this fight on Saturday. It’ll increase his popularity substantially in the boxing world. Lomachenko has more to lose. He’s viewed as a star already in boxing, thanks to the help from his promoters at Top Rank.

If Lomachenko loses the fight, he’s going to have to go back to square one and start rebuilding his career the way he did after his loss to Orlando Salido in 2014. In the event of a loss for the Ukrainian fighter, Top Rank will likely offer Rigondeaux a whole bunch of money to get him to agree to a rematch with Lomachenko. Top Rank can’t let Rigondeaux walk away with a win over Lomachenko without them making an effort to get a rematch so he can avenge the defeat.

It’s bad enough that Lomachenko was already beaten by Salido without avenging the loss. If Lomachenko gets beaten by Rigondeaux as well, Top Rank would have to do their best to schedule a rematch as soon as possible. Top Rank boss Bob Arum has been comparing Lomachenko to Muhammad Ali in the buildup to this fight. It won’t look good if Lomachenko loses to Rigondeaux, because Arum won’t be able to keep comparing him to Ali. I don’t know who Arum would compare Lomachenko to in that case. Maybe Sergey Kovalev would be a good one to compare Lomachenko to.

The faceoff between Lomachenko and Rigondeaux seemed to last for eternity, as both guys stared without emotion trying to gain an edge. Normally the fighters are broken up by their team during prolonged face-offs, but not for this one. Lomachenko’s team and Rigondeaux’s handlers let the two glare at each other nonstop until finally they both turned and faced the audience. It must have been well over 1 minute for the stare down.

What was noticeable about the face-off was the size difference between the two. Lomachenko looks like the much bigger guy in terms of his height and bone structure. Rigondeaux has the longer arms though, and that could help him make up for his lack of size. If Lomachenko comes into the fight with a 10 to 15 pound weight advantage, he might have a hard time imposing his size due to Rigondeaux’s long reach and his faster hand speed. This isn’t wrestling or NFL football where it pays to be heavier than your opponent. To really have an advantage in boxing, you need more than 10 to 15 pounds of weight on your side. You’ve got to be a lot heavier than that than your opponent.

Both fighters have a secondary weigh-in at 9am on Saturday morning. They’re not able to weigh more than 138 for that. That means Lomachenko can’t gain more than 10 pounds overnight when rehydrating.

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Image: Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux – Official weights

Image: Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux – Official weights

Image: Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux – Official weights

Image: Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux – Official weights

Image: Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux – Official weights