Lomachenko vs. Rigondeaux: Fight prediction, preview odds, line, tale of the tape, pick
Saturday’s junior lightweight title bout between Vasyl Lomachenko and Guillermo Rigondeaux is indeed historically unique as the first professional boxing match to feature fighters who have won several Olympic gold medals, which placing it into appropriate context has never been easy.
In many ways, it’s a Super Bowl of the lower weight classes, featuring a rising star in Lomachenko (9-1, 7 KOs), who captured world titles in two weight divisions in only his seventh ace fight, along with the eldest Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KOs), among the greatest defensive geniuses ever.
You may just as easily call it a showdown for present pound-for-pound supremacy. Heck, Roy Jones Jr. went as far as saying it’s the best fight on newspaper that pro boxing has ever seen. But for its ravenous allure to hard-core fans within the very niche world of the sport science, it was difficult to envision it would ever connect to a greater audience beyond that.
Though Lomachenko is getting close, neither fighter talks English full-time in interviews and both have styles which are heavier on technical wizardry (Rigondeaux has been regularly deemed dull ) than bone-crushing knockouts. However, something happened along the way to challenge this theory.
First, legendary promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank announced a four-year deal with ESPN earlier this year, which comprised Lomachenko’s August success over Miguel Marriaga, also secured prime property for the struggle (9 p.m. ET) instantly following the Heisman Trophy ceremony.
Secondly, the fight sold out the 5,500-seat Theater in Madison Square Garden in New York two months ahead of time. The result was a continuous flow of crossover buzz to get a struggle matching a fighter (Ukraine’s Lomachenko) who might already be the very best in the game after just 10 pro bouts against maybe the only man equipped to disarm him (Cuba’s Rigondeaux).
Even the sometimes gruff Arum, who turns 86 on Friday and enters the 30th occasion he’s encouraged at“The World’s Most Famous Arena“ throughout 50-plus years in boxing, had to acknowledge he was pleasantly surprised by how the struggle was received.
„I was gratified by the attention and how this has caught on, but know that I am involved with boxing, I really like boxing, and I felt constantly that this struggle is worthy of the attention that it, in actuality, has obtained,“ Arum told CBS Sports with this week’s“In This Corner“ podcast. „Was I assured of that coming in? No. It is something that is well merited. It is not a fluke that it’s getting the attention that it’s getting due to those participants.
„It is historic. These are two of the greatest amateur fighters in boxing history and also the fact that they are going at each other is something really fantastic. I’m honored to market this fight.“
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