Lomachenko says Rigondeaux must come forward if he wants to win

By Boxing News - 11/29/2017 - Comments

Image: Lomachenko says Rigondeaux must come forward if he wants to win

By Chris Williams: Vasyl Lomachenko doubts whether unbeaten Guillermo Rigondeaux will have it in him to try and beat him next month on December 9. Lomachenko notes that Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KOs) will have it in him to come forward to press the attack on him when the two of them face each other on ESPN at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Lomachenko (9-1, 7 KOs) says Rigondeaux is a natural counter puncher, and he’s not going to want to attack him the way he would need to for him to have a chance of getting the victory.

”If he wants to win he needs to come forward, but he can’t, because he train every time in counterpunch. So, it’s a fight, IQ boxer fight,” said Lomachenko to Fighthub.

This is going to be a real disappointment for Lomachenko’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank if he loses this fight. Arum has been comparing Lomachenlo to Muhammad Ali. If Lomachenlo gets beaten by Rigondeaux, then Arum might need to come up with someone else to compare him to. That would be Lomachenko’s second loss of his career, and it would put his record at 9-2 after 11 fights.

Ali didn’t suffer his first career defeat until his 32nd fight of his career in a defeat against Joe Frazier in 1971. That came not long after Ali had been banned from boxing for 3 ½ years after refusing to be inducted into the U.S armed forces. Lomachenko already got beaten by Orlando Salido.

For Lomachenko to win, he’s going to need to attack as well. Lomachenko won’t beat a fighter of Rigondeaux’s caliber using the hit and move style that he employed against Manuel Marriaga, Gary Russell Jr., Nicholas Walters and Jason Sosa. Lomachenko was able to hit and get away from those fighters because they were slower, less skilled, and not able to counter punch him.

If Lomachenko choses to throw single shots, he’s going to leave himself open to being countered. That’s the problem that he has. Rigondeaux can counter single shots, and he’s able to counter jabs as well. If Lomachenko decides not to throw any punches, he should be fine, but he’s not going to win like that.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a fight like everybody’s waiting for. You know his style, Rigondeaux,” said Lomachenko. “All people who know boxing, all people who love boxing — you know style Rigondeaux and you know how he can use his skill.”

You never know what kind of a fight it’ll be. Rigondeaux was landing mostly single shots against the much bigger Moises Flores in his last fight June. In the final seconds of the round, Rigondeaux opened up with a flurry of shots that knocked Flores out. One of the punches came after the bell, so the fight was subsequently ruled a no contest. The way that Rigondeaux opened up on Flores was surprising, because the punches came so fast. If Rigondeaux does that against Lomachenko, we could have a similar result. Lomachenko has been fighting much slower guys than Rigondeaux during his pro career, and yet still was beaten once and almost twice. Lomachenko was forced to run from Russell Jr. because he was getting worked over by him. Lomachenko won that fight based on his size advantage over Russell Jr. If not for that, Lomachenko would have lost the fight.

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