By Sean Jones: Vasyl Lomachenko (9-1, 7 KOs) is saying he’s going to use his big size advantage to “squash” the smaller challenger Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KOs) in their fight live on ESPN on December 9 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Lomachenko and Rigondeaux spoke to the media on Wednesday to discuss their upcoming fight in less than 2 weeks. Both guys are predicting knockouts. Rigondeaux, 37, is saying he’s going to explode on Lomachenko and score a knockout. For his part, Lomachenko expects to smash Rigondeaux like a big tank to get his KO.
“I’m going to walk through him like a tank and knock him out,” said Lomachenko. “I’m not promising to knock him out. I am promising to squash him,” said Lomachenko in predicting a knockout of the smaller Rigondeaux.
Lomachenko isn’t the type to go out and obliterate his opponents. He tends to wear them down with light punches thrown at rapid pace over the course of his fights. One guy that Lomachenko did knockout fairly early was Roman ‘Rocky’ Martinez, and that was a 5th round knockout in 2016 against a fighter that had been through 2 grueling wars with Orlando Salido, and a punishing knockout loss to Mikey Garcia.
Lomachenko doesn’t usually knockout guys quickly though. If Lomachenko is going to KO Rigondeaux, then it means he’ll need to deal with a lot of counter punches, which could be difficult for him to take unless the Cuban fighters’ power doesn’t carry up to the super featherweight division.
“Lomachenko and 40 more like him,” said Rigondeaux when asked if he’ll knockout Lomachenko. “I don’t spend time thinking about that. I do my job and I do it well. That’s out of my control. I take care of what I need to take care of in the,” said Rigondeaux in response to a question about how he felt about not receiving credit for beating Nonito Donaire 2013.
Rigondeaux did look awfully good in his last fight in stopping his mandatory challenger Moises Flores in the 1st round on June 17. The results of the fight were overturned after the Nevada State Athletic Commission concluded that Rigondeaux’s knockout blow came after the bell had sounded to end round 1. Never the less, Rigondeaux’s speed, power and combination punching in the final seconds of the 1st round were devastating. If Rigondeaux does that to Lomachenko, he’ll have a good chance of knocking him out.
Rigondeaux never really did get a lot of credit for beating Nonito Donaire easily in their fight on April 13, 2013. Rigondeaux beat Donaire by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision. Not long after that, Rigondeaux’s fights stopped being televised by HBO, which was a surprise, because he had done such a great job of beating the 2012 Fighter of the Year in Donaire. Rigondeaux found himself an avoided fighter after that, and he’s still being avoided to this day 4 years later. Lomachenko agreed to fight Rigondeaux, but he fights 2 divisions above him. It was an easy decision for Lomachenko to make to take the Rigondeaux fight due to his height, weight and power advantage.
“I got to do my job and win convincingly enough so they can’t rob me,” said Rigondeaux.
Hopefully the judges don’t ruin the outcome of the fight by giving the win to the wrong fighter. It’s the type of fight where it’s likely that the judges won’t be able to mess up the outcome. Either Rigondeaux is going to school Lomachenko or the Ukrainian fighter is going to use his size and power advantage to win the fight. It’s very likely going to be a fight that will be easy to pick the winner of the match. But if does turn out to be a robbery, at least the fight will be seen by enough boxing fans for them to make a huge fuss. The New York State Athletic Commission will likely order a rematch if there’s a robbery like the one we saw in the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight.
“The one that has to worry is Lomachenko. I have my style and I adapt every time I step in the ring. I don’t look for (a knockout). It just happens. It’s unpredictable,” said Rigondeaux. “Not all. I just have to do my job,” said Rigondeaux when asked if he’s worried about the judges.
Rigondeaux’s ability to find openings in his opponent’s defense makes him a real threat to beating Lomachenko, and perhaps even knocking him out with a body shot. It would be bad for Lomachenko and his promoters at Top Rank, because they’re trying to turn him into a star. Rigondeaux already beat one of Top Rank’s former darlings in Nonito Donaire when he was in his prime in 2013. If Rigondeaux can do the same thing to Lomachenko, it would be a bitter pill for Top Rank to swallow. You can bet that if Rigondeaux beats Lomachenko, it’ll be the last time Top Rank matches one of their young stars against him. You can forget about Rigondeaux getting a shot at Top Rank fighter Oscar Valdez. That won’t happen if Rigondeaux beats Lomachenko on December 9. Lomachenko would need to be the one that forces the rematch with Rigondeaux by insisting that Top Rank make that fight, because the promotional company will likely try and steer Lomachenko to safer waters and not let him take a second fight with the Cuban wizard.
“I am hearing this from Mr. Arum for years. So it’s not pressure to me anymore. It used to be but not anymore.” said Lomachenko in talking about how his promoter Bob Arum compares him to Muhammad Ali.
Arum is going overboard in comparing the 29-year-old Lomachenko to Muhammad Ali. The two of them have nothing in common with the way they fought in the early periods of their careers. The only thing they have in common is both fighters were Olympic gold medalists. That’s about it. Ali was more dominant as a fighter, and he made more interesting to watch due to his movement, punch accuracy and the way he entertained the crowd. Ali would predict the rounds he would knockout his opponents. Lomachenko doesn’t do that. He probably couldn’t even if he wanted to.
” You can’t let him pile up the points or he will coast and stink you out,” said Lomachenko’s promoter Bob Arum about the importance of not letting Rigondeaux build up an early lead. ”Lomachenko will not cede ground early so Rigondeaux will have the entire fight to win, so therefore I see a very exciting fight and you’ll see the best of both of these guys,” said Arum.
If Rigondeaux builds up a big enough lead in the first half of the fight, he’s not going to try and stink out the joint as Arum says. Rigondeaux will look to capitalize on Lomachenko’s aggression in the second half of the contest by hitting him with counter shots each time he attempts to land something big. Lomachenko isn’t the type to get desperate, but he probably would if he were far behind in the fight. We saw some desperation from Lomachenko in his fight with Orlando Salido in 2014. Lomachenko fell behind in the first 9 rounds. He then attacked Salido furiously in the last 3 rounds to desperately try for a knockout. It didn’t happen, so he lost the fight.