Lomachenko wins after opponent bows out
VASYL Lomachenko beat Guillermo Rigondeaux on Saturday night when Rigondeaux’s corner stopped the fight after six rounds because the boxer was complaining of pain in his left hand.
Lomachenko was easily winning boxing’s first pro match between two-time Olympic gold medallists when Rigondeaux and his trainers jointly called for the match to be stopped.
Promoter Dino Duva said Rigondeaux first felt pain in the second round and hurt it more significantly in the third.
Duva said doctors believed the hand could be broken and were sending the 2000 and 2004 Olympic gold medallist from Cuba to the hospital for X-rays.
Lomachenko (10-1, 8 KOs) earned his seventh straight win by stoppage and defended his WBO 130-pound title. And for the fourth straight time, it ended with his opponent quitting.
Rigondeaux lost for the first time in his 18 pro fights and was booed afterwards by a crowd that was supporting both fighters early in the match. But it was apparent that Lomachenko was too much for the 37-year-old Rigondeaux, the 122-pound champion who was moving up two weight classes for the match.
Long one of boxing’s best defensive fighters, even he couldn’t find a way to defend against Lomachenko’s onslaught.
“He frustrates them, he begins to come on, looks like he’s going to knock them out, they quit because they can’t answer back,” promoter Bob Arum said about the Ukrainian.
Lomachenko started cautiously but by the third round he had begun finding his way.
He was leading 59-54 on two judges’ cards and 60-53 on the other. Rigondeaux was unlikely to catch up even if he could’ve continued.