Lomachenko stops Rigondeaux to win match of Olympic greats
NEW YORK (AP) — Vasyl Lomachenko doesn’t just beat fighters. He makes them quit.
Even Guillermo Rigondeaux, who had never even lost a fight as a pro.
“I guess I should change my name now to NoMaschenko,” Lomachenko said.
Lomachenko won their bout 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.
Duva said the injury came from a punch — though Rigondeaux certainly didn’t hit Lomachenko with many of them.
“Where did he hurt his hand, in the dressing room?” promoter Bob Arum said.
Lomachenko (10-1, 8 KOs) earned his seventh straight victory by stoppage and defended his WBO 130-pound title. And for the fourth straight time, his match ended with his opponent quitting.
Rigondeaux lost for the first time in his 18 pro fights and was loudly booed afterward by a crowd that was supporting both fighters early in the match.
But it was quickly apparent that the 2008 and 2012 gold medallist was too much for the 37-year-old Rigondeaux — the 122-pound champion who was moving up two weight classes for the historic match.
“I adjusted to his style, low blows and all,” Lomachenko said.
Long one of boxing’s best defensive fighters, even Rigondeaux couldn’t find a way to defend against Lomachenko’s onslaught.
Lomachenko was leading 59-54 on two judges’ cards and 60-53 on the other, and a fighter who does as little offensively as Rigondeaux was unlikely to make that up.