Lomachenko’s win over Rigondeaux does nothing for him

By Boxing News - 12/11/2017 - Comments

Image: Lomachenko’s win over Rigondeaux does nothing for him

By Chris Williams: Vasyl Lomachenko’s win last Saturday night over a smaller, older and injured 37-year-old super bantamweight Guillermo ‘The Jackal’ Rigondeaux (17-1, 11 KOs) won’t do anything to increase his popularity with the casual boxing fans of the sport.

The Lomachenko-Rigondeaux fight was boring to a lot of the boxing fans that saw it, and the ending was bad with Rigondeaux bowing out due to a left-hand injury. Picking an opponent from 2 weight classes below him to fight in 122 lb. Rigondeaux makes Lomachenko look like he only fights guys that he has a clear advantage over.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. MOVED UP in weight from super featherweight all the way to junior middleweight to beat guys. Mayweather didn’t move down in weight 2 weight classes to cherry pick smaller, older guys the way Lomachenko did last Saturday night in fighting Rigondeaux at Madison Square Garden in New York.

If Errol Spence Jr. had fought a 37-year-old fighter with an injured left hand who had to move up 2 weight classes from the lightweight division to face him at welterweight, he would be getting heavily criticized today by the boxing public. The fans would be reading Spence the riot act today.

Let’s be honest about it. And yet Lomachenko is able to fight a 37-year-old that moved up 2 divisions to fight him at super featherweight, and he’s being adored today, and crowned as the No.1 pound for pound fighter in boxing. It doesn’t make sense to me. Lomachenko didn’t gain anything from his win over Rigondeaux. In fact, I’d say Lomachenko lost status rather than gained it, because Rigondeaux dominated him in round 1 before he injured his left power hand. That was Rigondeaux’s best moment of the fight before he injured his left hand. You have to factor that into the final results.

Lomachenko beat an injured, smaller and older guy in Rigondeaux rather than a bigger fighter from 2 weight classes above him in Terence Crawford. Lomachenko never volunteered to fight Crawford when he held the IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO light welterweight titles. Crawford was 2 divisions above Lomachenko, and he didn’t volunteer to take that fight. But when a fight against an older fighter that competes in a weight class 2 divisions BELOW him was offered to Lomachenko, he readily accepted. What does that tell you about Lomachenko?

If Lomachenko wanted to get credit for beating Rigondeaux, he should have fought him at 126 instead of 130. 126 is the halfway point from Rigondeaux’s 122 lb. division that he fights at. Lomachenko would have showed some courage if he had fought Rigondeaux at featherweight instead of making him move all the way up to super featherweight before agreeing to fight him.

I don’t want to rain on Lomachenko’s parade, but he didn’t accomplish anything by beating Rigondeaux. if anything, he hurt his popularity in my mind. Lomachenko showed that he needs an advantage over his opponents in order for him to fight them.