Boxing: Vasyl Lomachenko Forces Guillermo Rigondeaux To Quit

Along with UFC Fight Night 123 and Bellator 190 going down Saturday night, boxing was featured on ESPN as Vasyl Lomachenko defeated Guillermo Rigondeaux via TKO to retain his WBO junior lightweight title.

The fight drew headlines as it was the first time two former two-time Olympic gold medalists squared off against one another. But it failed to live up to the hype.

Instead, Lomachenko completely dominated, forcing Rigondeaux and his corner to call the fight with the boxer sitting on his stool after the sixth round. Rigondeaux appeared to have injured his left hand sometime during the contest.

“This is not his weight, so it’s not a big win for me,” Lomachenko said (thanks to ESPN for the quotes). “But he’s a good fighter, he’s got great skills. I adjusted to his style, low blows and all.”

Lomachenko landed just 55 of his 339 strikes, with Rigondeaux connecting on only 15 of the 178 that he threw. Rigondeaux became the fourth straight opponent for Lomachenko to quit, joining Miguel Marriaga, Jason Sosa and Nicholas Walters.

With the win, Lomachenko improved to 10-1 in his career with eight knockouts. Rigondeaux suffered his first loss in 18 fights.

“I lost, no excuses,” Rigondeaux said through a translator. “I injured the top of my left hand in the second round. He’s a very technical fighter, he’s explosive. I’m gonna come back because that’s what I do. The weight was not a factor in this fight. It was the injury to my hand.”

The card took place from The Theater at Madison Square Garden and drew a sellout crowd of over 5,100 fans.

Promoter Bob Arum, chairman of Top Rank, had nothing but praise to put on Lomachenko.

“Listen, the only thing I can say is you guys are seeing something really special,” Arum said. “The body of work from this kid is something that is virtually incredible. I’ve never seen anything like this. I never have. He gets these guys, he frustrates them, it looks like he’s gonna knock them out and they quit because they can’t answer back. This is something really unique. Rigondeaux goes in with Lomachenko and he is totally bewildered. He can’t hit him with anything.”