Wilfredo Gomez vs Guillermo Rigondeaux At 122

Every single time imo.

 

That's true for runners like Lara but not necessarily for guys with the more subtle defensive skills like Mayweather and Rigondeaux.

 

THe thing about Gomez walking through a jab to land a hook isn't going to matter because Rigo doesn't use a traditional jab. He uses his lead hand to occupy, distract and defend, if Gomez is walking into anything it will be a lightning quick power left hand, there's a reason why Rigo's opponents output drops so sharply after a couple of rounds. He uses it not only to the head but cracks the body with just as much power.

He stole Donaire's soul as sure as I'm writing this and to if you deny he is a unique talent I have to ask you to point me to another equally Powerful, lighting quick, skilled and defensively sound fighter. I'd be INCREDIBLY interested to watch some footage of him.:hat

 

Gomez tortures Rigo before executing him.

 

Mayweather, Whitaker, Pep, Locche, Loi

 

Pep, Locche and Loi were all pillow fisted though undeniably skilled as hell. The other two are not guys who I'd ever lay a dime down against, and only Whitaker was a southpaw. Not a one of them carries the pound for pound power that Rigo does.

 

That's as may be but Rigondeaux's power isn't worth a damn compared to Gomez's, being merely decent as opposed to Gomez's monstrous.

And Donaire whilst a good puncher didn't have the elite boxing skills that Gomez possessed along with the elite power. Donaire relied almost entirely on his size and strength advantages to maintain his lower weight dominance.

Don't get me wrong. Rigondeaux is a top shelf talent especially defensively but I don't think he has anything that Gomez can't match and eventually better. Gomez is as complete a fighter as you'd see imo and aside from perhaps a physical beast like Fenech I have my doubts that anyone could beat him at 122 (and even Fenech I'd make a rank underdog).

 

How do you rate Rigo's power?

Aside from breaking Donaire's face the only real power he's shown is blowing overmatched opposition.

But I get what you're saying now, he has the power to match his defence. For me it's a bit unproven still.

 

Your always nut hugging black defensive boxers. Your overrating Rigo. He hasn't really beat a great fighter has he? You can only really rate a boxer when he's tested his skills to the limit. Gomez did this then some. Gomez would break down Rigo. He has the feet to get to him which is key, the rest would take care of itself.

 

Yup.

 

The only fighter I can think of that could tire out an opponent by running is Ali. Maybe Pep as well. It's almost always the runner who tires first.

Oh, and Mayweather and Rigo's defensive skills are far from subtle. They are two of the most blatant defensive minded boxers in history. Though Floyd does a lot of subtle things on the inside which is very impressive at times.

 

Of course it's true, walking forward is much easier than walking sideways or backwards. As you move forward you increase the range of your punch bringing you closer to your opponent, the converse is true for other movements.

Watch Hopkins feet against Pavlik. There Hopkins had to work very hard and that was against an extremely slow footed fighter. As he aged more he couldn't keep up those energy levels especially against Kovalev who was bigger and quicker than Pavlik.

We have to accept that as a pro Rigo is probably already past his best and is fighting purely for the paycheck. We've never seen him work hard enough to justify saying he could out maneuver Gomez.

 

Even Ali accepted he couldn't do it against Foreman. Hence the rope-a-dope.

Pep managed once against Saddler in the fight of his life but wasn't able to replicate it in further fights.

 

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Good points.