All hail Vasyl Lomachenko, king of boxing. The highly anticipated super fight between two time Olympic gold medalist Guillermo Rigondeaux and two time Olympic gold medalist Vasyl Lomachenko is in the books. The Ukrainian has prevailed as most expected. Christopher Diaz also looked great on the undercard.
Vasyl Lomachenko (10-1, 8 KOs) has now forced four straight fighters to quit on their stool. I don’t think I have ever seen such a streak in the sport. Yet again, despite all the hype and amateur pedigree of Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-1, 11 KOs), in the end it was pretty easy in there for the Ukrainian great. He truly is an amazing fighter.
In the fight’s opening moments, Rigo fired off a nice one two that appeared to split the guard of Loma. That was about all he did. At first his defense was still top notch and Vasyl struggled to find him. Over the course of the six rounds the fight went, however, Loma began to figure out and time his patterns. He also was very demonstrative to the referee in response to some of the Cuban great’s techniques that are more ambiguous in terms of legality. Willis was eventually forced to take a point for holding in what proved to be the final round.
After the sixth, I remarked to the people in the room with me that this was going to start to get depressing. Apparently Rigondeaux agreed. Citing a hand injury that mysteriously appeared to first be in his right hand and then moved to his left, Guillermo Rigondeaux quit on his stool. I thought he had been really bothered by some of the defending titleholder’s shots for the first time in that round, so the injury was particularly convenient in that regard too.
Yet, I don’t blame him for looking for a credible out. It must have been a bizarre feeling for Guillermo Rigondeaux to realize he was a beaten man. Part of me is actually glad that I didn’t have to watch the legend be methodically beaten down over the second half of the fight.
In the fight before the main event that confusingly was not the co-main event, Michael Conlan (5-0, 4 KOs) was drawn the distance for the first time in his young career by Argentinian club fighter Luis Molina (7-4-1, 2 KOs). Really, it didn’t look like Conlan was that interested in a finish. The Irish fighter instead seemed more concern with using his jab and going six full rounds. This is certainly positive for his development and the right decision, but it did also make for a fight where every round was exactly the same.
Emerging junior lightweight Christopher Diaz (22-0, 14 KOs) had a breakout performance in dominating Bryant Cruz (18-3, 9 KOs) in the show’s official co-main event. Cruz was a late replacement, but Diaz exceeded any expectation with his third round stoppage. The rising Puerto Rican put his opponent down in all three rounds with his quick hands, twice in the second, before the fight was mercifully stopped. Post-fight, Diaz emotionally expressed his desire to replace Miguel Cotto as boxing’s Puerto Rican star.
American 2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson (4-0, 2 KOs) opened the show by dominating Californian club fighter Oscar Mendoza (4-3, 2 KOs) for a round and a half before the referee intervened. Mendoza wasn’t hurt or really in trouble so in that sense it was a strange decision, but he was also in a hopeless situation. Stevenson was just beating him up and that wasn’t going to change.
