Lomachenko makes Rigo quit in six
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 medalists 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 medalist 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.
Where did he hurt his hand, in the dressing room? BOB ARUM On Rigondeaux blaming an injured left hand for quitting in the sixth round.
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 medalist 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 himself against Lomachenko’s onslaught.
“It just amazes me what this guy does to an opponent,” Duva said. “He just frustrates his oppo- nent so bad you don’t even know what to do.”
Lomachenko started cautiously but by the third round he had begun finding his way through Rigondeaux’s defense.
He 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 even if he could’ve continued.
“I’m going to come back and fight against anybody because there are no excuses,” Rigondeaux said through a translator.
Rigondeaux would have liked the fight at a lower weight but the height difference may have been a bigger problem. Giving up three inches to the 5-foot-7 Lomachenko, he frequently was caught when he tried to lunge forward for shots and couldn’t slip Lomachenko’s accurate punches, and when he kept trying to duck lower and lower Lomachenko even hit him on top of the head. /