How do you market Lomachenko in America now?

He should be marketed the same way other boxers are marketed- fight in smaller venues, fight on underacrds of boxers who have acheived more on a professional level, and gradually make your way up the ranks.

Rigo was in an unusual situation since he's already in his 30's and only has 14/15 fights under his belt. Loma is only in his mid-20's, he can be brought along more slowly than Rigo has.

 

:deal

 

I wouldn't call him boring, but he just doesn't do anything exceptional for anyone to consider him a potential P4P stalwart. Both FLoyd and Rigo are master boxers, have elite technical ability and superlative defensive styles. Can't compare those guys with someone like Loma who's just not in their stratosphere.

 

Rigo would have been KOed last night against a Welterweight. Rigo fights the way he does because of his Glass Jaw whenever he trades he gets put on his ass.

 

They just need to match him up against some slow fighters who will stand right in front of him, and won't pressure him too much. He'll rack up a bunch of KOs and he'll be marketable.

 

I hear Friday Night Fights has plenty of openings

 

Rigo's chin is shaky, but his defense is superb. I'm sure he could've beaten THAt version of Salido last night.

It's a lose-lose situation for you if you actually want to compare Vasyl's style with Rigo's. Rigo might be a "boring" fighter, but his style will be hard to beat for any guy at 122-130 lbs. He's a master boxer who knows how to utilize the entire ring, great footwork, terrific handspeed, and wonderful defensive ability.

 

He'll be fine. It was a tough fight, but its not like he took a terrible beating. I still think what he did is very impressive for a guy with 2 (or maybe 8) pro fights, but he did fall just below expectations for everyone who was expecting him to win the world title in his second official pro fight.

There are multiple ways to promote him, and top rank will figure it out. I expect to see him fight at home a bit, also be added on big fights under cards and make up part of some HBO double or triple headers...

 

The "magical 0" only applies to 2000's era American fighters though. Look what happened to Devon Alexander, Lamont Peterson, Andre Berto, Adrien Broner etc. All those guys were rated to the moon then became bums as soon as they lost ONE fight. Now granted some of those guys went onto to lose MORE fights, but it's like they disappeared overnight as soon as they lost their first bout. Some of those guys used to have HBO segments then suddenly after losing, guys like Alexander and Peterson would be fighting on a given night and nobody would even be talking about it. Zab Judah is probably the last American boxer I can remember having some form of media relevancy after losing, when he lost to Kostya Tsyzu he still made the news for fights with Cory Spinks and Mayweather but that is a RARE exception for 2000's era American boxers with losses.

Literally after some of those guys lost their first fight you stop hearing about them in the media except for Broner. It's almost like Peterson and Alexander don't exist anymore. People only ride with American fighters like Thurman, Ward, and Bradley because they have the 0 but when one of them losses he will go to irrelevancy. However, foreign fighters lose all the time and come back to relevancy. So Lomachenko will be fine.

 

He'll still pick up a title before his 10th fight. Also, his willingness to fight anyone, anywhere will work to his advantage.

If you're a fighter that's easy to negotiate with and has name equity, you'll get fights. Featherweights don't really have many other options to go for a payday that it makes sense to leave Lomachenko in the cold here in North America.

Also, if they want him, it behooves them to go after Loma now before he gets more pro experience and refines his style to be more pro-friendly. I don't think he'll have any issues attracting top 15, top 10 caliber fighters to fight even coming off the loss.

 

"Lomachenko, watch him this Saturday night vs. whoever. This experienced amateur-turned pro is a smart and CLEAN fighter. How far can his morals take him? This is must-watch boxing!!"

That's one marketing approach...

 

I would also argue that getting a robbery to preserve your 0 (like Khan and Kotelnik, respectively) damages your marketability more than getting handled the actual loss does. Remember the backlash against Bradley before the Provodnikov fight won people back over, too.

 

Trust me he's not boring when he's allowed to fight. Salido got away with leading with his head all night proboxinganalysis.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/robbery-in-texas which completely killed the fight. Lomachenko (with a half decent ref) is one of the most exciting guys i've seen box.