Vasyl Lomachenko (9-1, 7 KOs) and Guillermo Rigondeaux both made weight at their weigh-in on Friday for their huge bout this weekend at MSG in New York. Lomachenko weighed 129 pounds. Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KOs) came in at 128.4 lbs. The limit for the super featherweight division is 130 lbs.
Lomachenko, 29, looked a lot bigger than Guillermo at the weigh-in. The weight was almost the same, but Lomachenko looked like he belongs in a higher weight class.
By the time the two fighters step inside the ring on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York, you can bet that Lomachenko will be a lot bigger than Rigondeaux. While the boxing experts feel that Lomachenko will win due to his size, Rigondeaux resists this notion. He believes talent wins fights rather than size. That makes sense, but when you realize that Lomachenko is not only bigger than Rigondeaux, but he’s also very talented. That makes it harder for the smaller Rigondeaux to win the fight, because he’s facing a very good fighter in Lomachenko.
If Rigondeaux loses the fight to Lomachenko on Saturday, then he traded in his unbeaten record for a good payday. Hopefully the loss doesn’t hurt Rigondeaux’s popularity and changes for future paydays.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUtxctSVMHo
This is a match-up between 2 pound-for-pound fighters with 2 Olympic gold medals each. Unfortunately for boxing fans, we might see the fight come down to size being the main factor in the outcome.
Lomachenko is the bigger guy in defending his WBO super featherweight division, and he has the benefit of having the fight take place in his weight class without the benefit of a catch-weight for his opponent Rigondeaux. Lomachenko isn’t giving up anything for the fight. He’s in his own weight class, and it’ll be Rigondeaux who will be moving up 2 weight divisions from the super bantamweight division at 122 to fight Lomachenko at 130. Boxing is a little different from other sports.
In boxing, the more popular fighter tends to get the advantages over their opponents, which is why it’s sometimes difficult to unseat a popular fighter when they’re able to use their popularity to get the weight just right for them. If Lomachenko wins, he won’t get as much credit as he would if he’d met Rigondeaux halfway between his weight class of super bantamweight and super featherweight.
Lomachenko (9-1, 7 KOs) will have his WBO super featherweight belt up for grabs against the 37-year-old Rigondeaux, who the World Boxing Organization has ranked #1 for the division. Before the fight was announced, Rigondeaux wasn’t ranked at all by the WBO. That’s what’s great about boxing. When a big fight is announced between two popular fighters, you’ll see the sanctioning bodies often ranking them highly.
