By Chris Williams: Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KOs) is predicting that he’ll put on a “masterpiece” performance in beating WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (9-1, 7 KOs) in their highly anticipated fight in 8 days from now on December 9 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Lomachenko vs. Rigondeaux will be televised on ESPN. The promoters for both fighters are counting on a large viewing audience to watch the fight on the night. We’ll have to see if that turns out to be the case. Both fighters are popular with the hardcore boxing fans, but they’re not well-known among the casual fans as of yet. The super featherweight division is not a popular one in the U.S, and it likely never will be.
Rigondeaux, 37, will be moving up in weight 8 pounds to take on the bigger Lomachenko in this battle between Olympic gold medalists. Rigondeaux says he feels stronger in adding weight to his frame, and he’s ready to put on a dominating performance against the Ukrainian.
This is a difficult fight to predict, as both fighters have been so dominating in their weight classes. The only times Rigondeaux has had problems during his 8-year pro career is when he’s faced guys that have had a huge height advantage over him. Rigondeaux, 5’4”, had problems beating the 5’8” Ricardo Cardoba, 5’8” Robert Marroquin and 5’10 ½” Hisashi Amagasa. In each of those fights, Rigondeaux was giving away at least 4 inches in height. In the fight with Amagasa, Rigondeaux was 6 ½” inches shorter than the Japanese fighter. Lomachenko’s promoters at Top Rank have been a lot more careful in the matches they’ve setup for their fighter. They haven’t thrown the 5’6” Lomachenko into the ring against guys with a 4 to 6 inch height advantage. They’ve been very careful with Lomachenko. But even with the careful match-making by Top Rank, Lomachenko was still beaten by Orlando Salido in 2014. That fight showed that Lomachenko has limitations, especially when fighting a guy that attacks him to the body the way Salido did.
“It is going to be a masterpiece. People should anticipate a masterpiece,” Rigondeaux said to RingTV.com. ”I am not worried at all. The one that has to worry is Lomachenko. I am fine and I will do what I need to do when I get in the ring. I don’t worry too much what people think. I have my power every time I step in the ring.”
If Rigondeaux is able to deal with Lomachenko’s weight advantage in this fight, it could spell doom for him. Rigondeaux is the faster fighter, and he’s quite good at taking advantage of his opponent’s aggression. Lomachenko likes to throw a lot of rapid fire pity-pat punches to try and impress the boxing fans and the judges. Lomachenko will need to throw more single shots against Rigondeaux if he doesn’t want to be countered to oblivion on December 9. Lomachenko could get knocked out if he tries to fight the same way against Rigondeaux as we just saw in his fight with Manuel Marriaga last August. Lomachenko spent most of the fight showboating in throwing combinations. He was focusing on landing a lot of shots to try and impress the fans. It didn’t work. The fans were not impressed with the way Lomachenko was fighting. They wanted him to stand and trade with Marriaga instead of clowning around. Lomachenko eventually stopped Marriaga in the 7th, but it was a sloppy performance.
”I feel stronger than ever and I am going to do it and do it right,” said Rigondeaux. ”Moving up has had no negative effect whatsoever on my speed or power. It is going to be a massacre. People should anticipate a massacre. I am absolutely not worried at all. I will just go in there and do my job,” said Rigondeaux.
If the fight does turn out to be a “massacre” like Rigondeaux says it will, it’ll be the second time that the Cuban has beaten one of Top Rank promoter Bob Arum’s stars. Rigondeaux defeated Nonito Donaire in 2013, when he was one of Top Rank’s biggest stars in their stable. Rigondeaux took Donaire to school, and trounced him. Donaire’s career was never the same after that loss. He went from being the 2012 Fighter of the Year, to a guy that was soon after knocked out by Nicholas Walters and never viewed in the same way again. If Rigondeaux can do the same thing to Lomachenko, it would be a major buzz-kill to Arum. He’s been comparing Lomachenko to Muhammad Ali, despite the fact that he’s already been beaten, and not looked anywhere near as good. If Rigondeaux beats Lomachenko, Arum might need to come up with another fighter to compare Lomachenko to. Donaire might be a better option to compare Lomachenko to.
Rigondeaux is coming into the fight with Lomachenko as the clear B-side. That means that Rigondeaux is probably going to need to do a little bit extra to avoid being on the receiving end of a controversial decision. We have to hope the judges are fair on December 9 and score the fight in favor of the better fighter, whoever that may be. It would be in Rigondeaux’s best interest to take the judges out of the equation by knocking out Lomachenko if he can.