Editorials

Guillermo Rigondeaux Calls out Vasyl Lomachenko

In the aftermath of Vasyl Lomachenko’s boxing clinic against power-punching Nicholas Walters, a former potential opponent has come through the woodwork on Twitter to call out the Ukrainian: two-time Olympic gold medalist, Guillermo Rigondeaux.

Lorin Elise/RBRBoxing

In the aftermath of Vasyl Lomachenko’s boxing clinic against power-punching Nicholas Walters, a former potential opponent has come through the woodwork on Twitter to call out the Ukrainian: two-time Olympic gold medalist, Guillermo Rigondeaux.

Rigondeaux—who has a tendency to be very vocal on Twitter about people avoiding fights with him—criticized Lomachenko’s domination of Walters as ultimately fruitless because Walters quit on his stool after the seventh round, as well as delivered an onslaught of tweets taunting Lomachenko in his native Ukrainian tongue.

“You said that you want to fight the best,” Rigondeaux wrote through a blatant use of Google translate, “and that you want to be respected by your people. Do it!”

El Chacal has also insulted the potential promoters during the barrage of tweets saying, “How much [money] do you think? $1million for Lima [sic] and $300 for me?”

In the past, Lomachenko’s promoter Bob Arum has largely ignored Rigondeaux, noting that he’s a boring fighter who stinks out venues.

Arum, after the Walters bout, also seemingly has no intention of making a deal with Rigondeaux’s people considering his plan for Lomachenko includes moving him up in weight by late 2017 to fight ring legend Manny Pacquiao.

Arum’s goal, it would appear, is to turn Lomachenko into a mainstream star and has been clear that he doesn’t see Rigondeaux as a stepping stone to that.

Rigondeaux has pointed out on Twitter though that a bout between him and Lomachenko would likely pit two of the greatest amateur boxers of all time against one another.

CompuBox tweeted at Rigondeaux to confirm that a fight between them would be one of blistering technique as their fight numbers make them both the numbers one and two best defensive fighters active in the sport.

A fight between the two was in negotiations during the summer of 2015, but fell through due to disagreements about weight.

Rigondeaux has never fought above 122 pounds and Lomachenko is rapidly filling out in size. With all of the Cuban’s verbal sparring, time may be running out for the fight to actually happen.

Graphic by Lorin Elise/Round By Round Boxing

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