This is an excellent fight and pretty significant as well. It's not often that two of the greatest amatuers and current top ten pfp guys meet. Obviously weight and Rigondeaux's age are going to take some of the shine off of the fight but it's still a major fight for boxing fans. I'm skeptical it happens but it helps if Lomachenko comes down to 128 or so. Staying at 130 helps him but will take away some of the credit he'd get if he wins. Reminds me a bit of Ward-Dawson. With Dawson coming down to 168 Ward lost a lot of, and to some all, credit and praise he could have gotten for the fight. With the fight at 168 it's seen as, depending on who you ask, a decent to almost meaningless win where if he would have went to 175 or even a few pounds lower he would have still won the fight and it would be seen as possibly his biggest win. Lomachenko is in a similar(not exact) situation.
He made more than 120k vs Flores factoring in the signing bonus from Roc. That number wouldn't show up in the official purses, so it looks like he's earning far less than he really is. What we don't know is how much Rigo got up front from that contract, and how much he'll get if he hits the target number of fights (7) by 2019. Fighting Loma would be fight #4, so he'd only need 3 more fights in 2 years to hit that target. What I do know is that Roc is very, very generous when it comes to paying their fighters. I have a hard time believing they'd be screwing Rigo since they were essentially bidding vs themselves to land him in the first place.
I remember in the lead up to Rigo-Donaire I watched as much footage as I could find and became a huge fan of his and actually picked him to beat Nonito. Since then, he has done nothing but be inactive and avoid bigger fights. No longer a fan and I hope he takes this fight and gets a beating from Loma. Regardless of how skilled they are, we need less of Rigo, Ward, Floyd, etc. and more of Crawford, GGG, Loma, et al in boxing. There's no reason we should only see the best fight twice a year against guys they should've fought years ago or never at all.
Uh which bigger fights has Rigondeaux actually avoided? It was Frampton, Quigg, and LSC who clearly wanted nothing to do with him, not the other way around.
Don't act like I am one of those who has ill will against a fighter, and would hate on a legit win. If you've followed my posts, I've never done that sort of thing. That's you guys. Mad that Ward got a decision in the first fight, and stopped him in the second. Only times I've not given credit for a win is when it was a bad decision. I simply said that Loma was mugged by Salido, and Walters didn't even try. Both facts. I also gave Loma props for beating Russell Jr, who in my opinion was his best opponent to date.
That's like saying Mayweather ducked GGG but I'm sure you made that argument before. As others have said, people just want to see Loma beat Rigo because they know Rigo would be the undersized underdog going on. Given both guys have great skills, it's clear Loma has the physical advantages that would sway this fight heavily in his favor. A great big man beats a great small man (relatively speaking of course, these are boy sized men). Fighting at 130 would be even more of an advantage for Loma. Loma needs all these advantages just to fight an old Rigo? Nobody sees the irony in that?
I wasn't aware it was possible to duck a guy outside of your division. I'm sure you agree Pacquiao ducked Martinez and Golovkin ducked Ward though.
It is when they send you a contract, you ask for clauses to be added, they are agreed upon but you then refuse to sign.
Uh the 2015 "negotiations" were clearly farcical all along because Rigondeaux was clearly not fighting until he was done with Gary Hyde. Though this does seem quite a bit like when Pacquiao said he'd only meet Martinez at 150, Martinez said sure, and Pacquiao's side said 147 or no fight.
Floyd ducked Martinez. Martinez acknowledged that Pac was too small. Pac didn't even know who Martinez was... there's a video of him and his friends watching Martinez-Williams 2 and Pac asked his friend if Martinez was any good. Floyd ducked Golovkin. Golovkin acknowledged that Pac was too small.
Pacquiao, Arum, and Roach said they'd be happy to fight Martinez at 150, until Martinez said he could make 150. Pacquiao won the very belt that belonged to Martinez when he defeated the cheating fraud in one of the worst vacant belt fights ever sanctioned. Martinez may have said he understood why Pacquiao wouldn't fight him but he also called him a coward for reneging on what he said.
And then he said he could make it and Bob and Freddie said "147 only, we were just joking about 150."
"Manny Pacquiao is too small. It would be a mismatch. I don't believe that it will ever happen." - Sergio Martinez "Sergio would never fight Manny Pacquiao," said Lewkowicz, "because [Martinez] would knock him out." - Sam Lewkowicz