Boxing Coverage on Sherdog.comIn a historic clash between two two-time Olympic gold medalists, it was Vasyl Lomachenko who reigned supreme on Saturday night at the Theatre in Madison Square Garden in New York on ESPN.
Lomachenko was masterful against Cuban standout Guillermo Rigondeaux as he peppered him with jabs and hooks from every angle imaginable. The smaller Rigondeaux, who moved up two weight classes to fight “Hi-Tech” at 130 pounds, couldn’t get any offense going whatsoever. Whenever the two pugilists got close to one another, “El Chacal” tied his foe up, resulting in several pauses in action. To make matters worse, Rigondeaux repeatedly lowered his head, possibly in an attempt to draw fouls from the Ukrainian.
Lomachenko (10-1, 8 KOs) never took the bait in full and opted to keep things clean on his end. He rattled the Cuban a few times in the contest with an assortment of punches to the head, but he never had Rigondeaux in any danger of being stopped. However, just as Lomachenko appeared to be on the verge of administering a beating onto the current WBA super bantamweight champion, Rigondeaux quit on his stool between rounds six and seven.
Rigondeaux (17-1, 11 KOs), who had a point deducted for repeated holding, claimed after the battle that he injured his right hand in the third and couldn’t continue. Lomachenko was ahead on all three ringside judges’ scorecards [59-54. 59-54, 60-53] at the time of the stoppage, allowing him to retain his WBO junior lightweight world title.
