Square-up that would illuminate any boxing era

THE meeting of Vasyl Lomachenko and Guillermo Rigondeaux in Madison Square Garden tonight would light up any era in boxing.

Never before have we had two double Olympic champions and two double world amateur champions in opposite corners.

I have praised Lomachenko to the skies in this column before – he’s almost without flaw.

Of his 10 professional bouts, nine have been for world titles and at two different weights. He has lost only twice in a career that includes 397 amateur bouts.

In Rigondeaux he is undoubtedly fighting an opponent in the same class, a gilded amateur from the Cuban school who fought 437 times, losing only 12.

These are staggering numbers and made him, alongside the likes of Teofilo Stevenson, Felix Savon and Mario Kindelan, a Cuban icon feted by all and favoured by former president Fidel Castro himself.

His defensive genius is an acquired taste, acting as a deterrent to opponents and to promoters, who have struggled to pull in the punters. That has not been a problem in New York.

Though smaller in scale than Lomachenko (above), Rigondeaux is perfectly formed with broad, sloping shoulders topping a magnificent physique.

And like all the great Cubans, Rigondeaux is brilliantly schooled, a defensive artist, and a southpaw, throwing that backhand left with wicked accuracy. However, Rigondeaux (left, against Jazza Dickens) has three problems.

First, his age – he is nine years older than Lomachenko at 37. Second, genetics – he is having to jump two weight divisions from junior featherweight to junior lightweight to get his shot at professional immortality in this fight.

Third, pace – the intensity that Lomachenko sustains is phenomenal, a full-on hurricane for 12 rounds, which, combined with size advantage, will be too much for the Cuban.

It will be some spectacle but I believe it ends when Lomachenko finally breaks Rigondeaux down and stops him in the championship rounds.