Lomachenko vs. Rigondeaux tickets selling fast

Boxingnews24.com

By Chris Williams: The tickets are selling at a fast pace for the December 9th fight between WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko and Guillermo Rigondeaux for their fight at Madison Square Garden in New York. Tickets went on sale on Wednesday at noon, and only 800 tickets were remaining, according to Ticketmaster.

Lomachenko vs. Rigondeaux has a star time at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on ESPN and ESPN Deportes. With the fight being televised on ESPN, it’s bound to have a lot more boxing fans tuning in to watch it compared to if it were shown on HBO or Showtime. There will be a wider audience than if it were televised on one of the premium networks like HBO or Showtime.

Lomachenko has a large fan base in the New York area, and no doubt that many of those boxing fans are purchasing tickets for his important fight against Rigondeaux.

There’s never been a fight like this before with 2 talented former 2-time Olympic gold medalists facing each other. It should be an interesting fight unless Lomachenko’s size will be too much for Rigondeaux, which is what Gennady Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez believes.

“I think Lomachenko will be too big for him,” said Sanchez. ”Lomachenko is too big, and he moves around a little too much.”

Sanchez also said he thinks Rigondeaux might be a little older than his listed age of 36.

Rigondeaux, 36, is 7 years older than the 29-year-old Lomachenko, and he’ll be moving up 2 weight classes to face the 2-time Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine. Rigondeaux is a 2-time Olympic gold medalist as well, but from Cuba. Rigondeaux has been fighting in the 122 lb. weight class at super bantamweight.

Lomachenko started his career out at featherweight in 2013, and he moved up in weight to the super featherweight division last year in stopping Roman Martinez in the 5th round to win the WBO super featherweight belt. Lomachenko has defended the belt 3 times successfully in beating Nichols Walters, Jason Sosa an Miguel Marriaga. Those guys were all bigger than Rigondeaux, and none of them were any competition for Lomachenko. The only guy that was able to get the better of Lomachenko thus far was Orlando Salido, who used his size and body punching ability to pound out a decision.

“The Lomachenko versus Rigondeaux title fight is a signature event in the sport of boxing. It matches the two greatest fighters in Olympic boxing facing off against each other,” Arum said to ESPN.com. “Never before in boxing history have two boxers, each the winner of two Olympic gold medals, faced each other in a professional boxing match.”

That’s one selling point for the Lomachenko vs. Rigondeaux fight for Arum to focus on them both being 2-time Olympic gold medalists. It would be a little better if Arum had talked Lomachenko into making the fight a little fairer by having Lomachenko come down in weight to at least featherweight in order to even it out. Rigondeaux moving up 2 divisions to take the fight with Lomachenko is giving a big advantage to the Ukrainian fighter. It’s like asking Lomachenko to take on light welterweight Terence Crawford. Could Lomachenko hold his own against Crawford? Maybe, but I don’t think Lomachenko would have the size or the punching power to beat Crawford.

Lomachenko would need to move up 2 entire weight classes for him to take the fight with Crawford. I don’t see Lomachenko ever agreeing to take on Crawford, because he wouldn’t want to be put in a position where he’s giving up 10 lbs. of weight. Rigondeaux will be in the same situation in needing to move up 2 weight classes to take on Lomachenko. Rigondeaux will be giving up 8 lbs. of weight. As you can see, the fight is tilted in Lomachenko’s favor in a big way when it comes to size, age and power. Rigondeaux is taking the fight for the money, and because it could increase his popularity if he beats Lomachenko.

Lomachenko finished up his amateur career with a 396-1 record. Rigondeaux finished his amateur career with an impressive 463-12 record. Besides both winning gold medals twice in the Olympics, both fighters won 2 world championships at the amateur level.

Lomachenko doesn’t have a lot of guys for him to fight in the super featherweight division, which is one big reason why he’s facing Rigondeaux. There are some goods in the 130 lb. weight class, but the casual boxing fans wouldn’t recognize any of them. If Lomachenko is going to stay at 130, he’s going to be stuck fighting obscure guys the casual boxing aren’t familiar with. That’s why it’s in Lomachenko’s best interest to fight Rigondeaux as often as possible, and then move up in weight to lightweight division if he’s willing to be involved in more competitive fights.

“It will be a big battle for boxing fans and boxing history,” Lomachenko said to ESPN.com. “This battle will open our maximum potential. It will be the best New Year’s present for boxing fanatics. Trust me on this one.”

Rigondeaux had to work hard to get this fight. That’s the sad part. Getting Lomachenko to finally agree to taking the fight was incredibly difficult. I get the impression that Lomachenko isn’t too much of a risk taker with his boxing career, which is what some fans believe to be the case as well. The Rigondeaux fight has been there for Lomachenko to take for ages, and so has the Mikey Garcia fight. It’s taken this long to get Lomachenko to fight the Cuban. I think Mikey Garcia has given up completely on Lomachenko, because there’s talk of him moving up to the 140 lb. division and not coming back down to lightweight. That means that Lomachenko has blown his chance of fighting Mikey; not that he’s shown any signs of wanting to take that fight to begin with.

After a series of mismatches for Lomachenko against Marriaga, Sosa, Walters and Roman Martinez, Rigondeaux at least appears to have the talent, power and boxing skills to give him a good fight. The mismatches for Lomachenko have gotten so badly lately that he’s now showboating in his fights, and it’s hard to watch because it makes his fights look even worse. It’s still hard to understand why Lomachenko fought Marriaga in his last fight, given that the fighter was coming off of a loss to fellow Top Rank fighter Oscar Valdez in his previous fight.

Rigondeaux recently beat Moises Flores by a 1st round stoppage on June 17 in a mandatory defense of his World Boxing Association 122 lb. title. Rigondeaux hit Flores with a shot that came after the bell. Flores then chose to stay down rather than getting back up to continue fighting. The fight ruled as a no contest. Riondeaux’s opinion is Flores out of the fight so he stayed down. Rigondeaux might end up losing his WBA title by not fighting Flores in a rematch, but he can make more money fighting Lomachenko.

Rigondeaux used to fight for Top Rank in the past, but they parted ways not long after he beat one of their biggest stars in Nonito Donaire by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision in 2013. Rigondeaux’s body punching and his counter punching makes him someone that the other top fighters at 122 don’t want to fight. To add to that, Rigondeaux is a southpaw and that makes him even more difficult to fight. Some fighters don’t want to fight southpaws, especially when they can punch to the body and counter punch like Rigondeaux.