Not sure if I like this fight or not. Yes, they are two masterclass fighters, but the terms of the fight are a slightly unfair for Rigo. Still, I don't think there's a better fight for both of them. Loma could have gone the Mikey Garcia way, but it would be a nightmare to make with Top Rank treating Mikey as persona non grata.

Tactical advice for Rigondeaux

First six - Do not let him steal any of the first 3 rounds, attack the body in spurts, don't work regularly throughout rounds, pick your offensive periods, jump into range, use that left hand, with speed, precision, which he won't be used to, give him the pressure if needing to work. You've got longer arms than this dude, show him why that's a problem for him, at distance beat him to the punch, be economical, be conservative, but use that reach. Try to land some fast shots to his face, you don't have to load up, just let those fast hands go, try to open up some gashes, sting this guy, put the pain on him. If he showboats, at all, jump right on him, catch him where he is vulnerable, the liver, the temple, when he doesn't see it coming, you're faster than this guy thinks you are, take advantage of that.

Last six - You will be tired, he's going to try to knock you out, let him, as long as you have put the rounds in the bank, let him, make him miss when he swings for the fences, and whenever he needs a breather, punish him, if you haven't won enough rounds, then you must take risks, take the guy into deep waters, show the world you are not boring, bring the attack up from body to head, fight dirty if you can, try to nick rounds 9 and 10 if you can, by investing in those occasional, fast flurries, you've done the championship rounds more times than he has, you've been there, remind him who the veteran.

Tactical advice for Lomachenko

First six - Don't work yourself ragged in the first few rounds, it may well be unnecessary, you're the young guy, you've got the tougher chin, you're the natural featherweight, in the late rounds, this is yours, don't out work this old man in rounds 1 and 2, just pressure him, make him move, your the taller guy, you'll weigh more, bring everything onto your terms, land that uppercut to the body, whenever you have him backed into a corner, timing is paramount here, too early or too late, when you do let a hard shot go, and you will waste a lot of steam, maybe walk onto a counter as well. Whenever he lets anything go, use that footwork, pivert, make him hit thin air, but don't spend minutes waiting for him to give an opportunity for a counter, he's going to try and work in spurts. Whether you think there is nothing really in it, or you are 4-0 up in you mind, it would be a huge mistake to showboat against a spiteful punisher like this, you so much as smile, and Rigo will make you pay, you need focus, 180/12.

Last six - This is your territory, he's going to be fading, exploit that, you sense his legs slowing down, get him on the ropes, pin him down, over power him, wind up a couple of big punches that will knock even more out of him, but don't load up too much, you're naturally bigger, more natural force, raw more will flow through to your fists than he can produce with the same amount to effort. You shouldn't give him a second's breather for the sake of landing one big punch you think could knock him out unless you need a knockout and it is the last round, or he is running on empty and you are extremely confident, because in rounds 7-10, you must not give this guy a second's rest, make him work. If he tries to rough you up, fight dirty (and you should expect this) use that to work in your favour, your bigger, spin him, push him, shove him, anger won't help this guy, even if you can't affect him mentally, if you can even wrestle him down, getting up could take something out of him. In rounds 7 and 8, it is not the time to admire your work, you need to take risks, do anything you can to win the rounds, you may have to take punches to land them, walk through a couple of shots if you can land your own, with more authority. Late on, it may be more a case of landing more, rather than better, you can punch, this guy hasn't got a great chin, if you land it on his jaw, with a relatively hard shot, he may be shaken, if you do rock him, that's when you let the really big punches go.

Prediction,

Super fight!

I think both these guys are top 10 world boxers. I say this would be a dead even 50/50 fight, but for two factors, age, and weight. Lomachenko being 29, and Rigondeaux being 37, besides, Lomachenko being familiar at 130, whilst Rigondeaux has been at 122 for years, means Lomachenko has 2 extreme advantages.

I think Lomachenko will win by decision, I think unanimous, and by a margin of at least 3 points, probably wider. If Lomachenko is not clearly behind after 6 rounds, I'm almost certain he'll have it in the bag, because the second half of the fight, this is the point in a fight when age really shows, and it is also a time when natural size, a weight advantage is more helpful for one fighter and problematic for his opponent, than in the first half. If Rigondeaux is ahead after 6 rounds, 4-2/5-1, then we'll be watching an interesting fight, and I'd give Rigondeaux a good shot at winning the fight, but if he is to have a chance of winning this, then a good start is of paramount importance.

Rigondeaux is not stupid, I don't think he is in the slightest bit deluded, about the realism of boxers at extreme disadvantages, he won't believe he is equally skilled to Lomachenko, equally athletic in his own wheelhouse, equally durable, because of he did, he wouldn't be follish enough, at 37, to move up 8 lbs, that's a massive amount for a bantamweight. Rigondeaux must believe, that in a completely fair fight, on neutral terms, he could do an absolute number on Lomachenko, he must consider himself substantially better than Lomachenko, so much that he can afford to let the opponent take the fight with these extreme advantages, at the expense of earning a lot more money, that is smart, but he had better not (and the same applies to his coach) have misjudged the scenario, because if so, this could end very badly for him, we have seen guys jump up in weight, not only dart into a big fight above a weight they weren't thoroughly drained at, but skip a full category, and leap up two divisions, and regret the bold move, we've also seen boxers overestimate themselves when at a certain age, and learn a torrid lesson about what happens to fighters in their late thirties, thinking the way they thought in their late twenties. Rigondeaux is taking both of these gambles, if he isn't considerably better than Lomachenko, relatively speaking, then he won't win this fight.

It looks like this fight suits Lomachenko down to the ground, it does, but at the same time, if he loses, it will put him in a very tough spot, it is a must win, there pressure really is on him. I do think Lomachenko's resumé is underrated, Walters, Russell, they are really good fighters, Martinez, Sosa are decent, and he has destructed most of these guys, he beat Russell, in I believe his third fight, by a wide margin, but nevertheless, he is yet to beat another top fighter, or a fighter who is just a notch below, he's beaten a guy with outstanding speed, Russell, he's beaten a guy who hits like a train, Walters, but he hasn't faced a ring genuis, with incredible ability to time punches, and the raw talent, 180 second per round focus, all the attributes Rigondeaux has which are so hard to negate, and can disarm any boxer, so this will be a tough test for the Ukrainian amateur boxing king, this is happening at a good time for Lomachenko, he is very lucky to even have any fight at his weight, against a guy who is coming directly from the division below, the division below his division, and there is no substitute for youth, if Lomachenko is as good as many people say, as good as those who go or have ever ranked him the very best boxer on the planet, say he is, he should defeat Rigondeaux, he won't be expected to absolutely breeze the fight, because of how experienced, awkward a fighter Rigondeaux is, but he should still be able to get the win.

I'll be very impressed if Lomachenko gets the better of the first half of this fight, I'd tell his fans to stop worrying at which point, I don't expect it to be the case, but if he does manage to build a lead, I think he would find himself pretty much, in the clear.

I think Rigondeaux has a very complicated game plan, I think Rigondeaux is going to try to cause some early damage, I wouldn't put it past him to specifically aim to break Lomachenko's jaw, open up cuts on his eyes, if he does it with punches, there is nothing illegal about it, this is boxing, it is fighting, cuts, fractures, they happen. I've seen an interestingly high number of Rigondeaux's opponents wind up with facial, structural damage, I wonder if he ever does it on purpose, deliberately lands with glancing blows that connect with the right amount of force, at the right, unlucky, agonising angle, to break something. If Rigondeaux does somehow manage to break Lomachenko's jaw, then Lomachenko will have a serious problem, and Rigondeaux will try to break him, if Rigondeaux can cause a gash or two, Lomachenko will have a tough time. It is also likely that Rigondeaux is not planning to try to cause facial damage, he may well be confident he can outbox Lomachenko early, nullify him with ring IQ, defence, boxing skills, maybe he is planning to invest in a high number of body shots, early, take something out of his opponent, maybe just one way or another, weaken his opponent, lessen his opponent in anticipation for the later rounds, possibly a combination of all these possibilities and other tactical ideas, but based on movement, output, relatively speaking, Rigondeaux is bound to tire before Lomachenko, it is Lomachenko who comes on strong, late, based on the fight scenario as it stands, so Rigondeaux's objective should be to apply a tactic that hinders this for Lomachenko, once he is in the ring, rather than trying to make it so he does such a lot of good work, he should try to make it so that Lomachenko can't do such a lot of good work, for Rigondeaux, rather than trying to make himself a better boxer, he needs to try to make Lomachenko a poorer boxer, disarm him, nullify him.

Lomachenko must not get cocky, consider the fight won before the bout has started, because that could be a terrible mistake. When the fight arrives, Lomachenko must, first and foremost, make it so that Rigondeaux can't get through the early rounds without working hard, he must keep the pace high, sustain pressure, make Rigondeaux work, in rounds 3-6, he should use his work rate, use his punch variety, try to outwork Rigondeaux, despite inevitably taking some good counter punches, he just has to try to outland his opponent, but in the second half of the fight he should really pile on the pressure, use his size, strength, make a fight of it, try to find Rigondeaux's chin if he can afford to gain that confidence in his own dominance.

I expect the fight to be more or less, in the balance, after 8 rounds, I think if Lomachenko is either at least 6-2 down, or behind at all, after 10 rounds, it will reach the point for him, when he has to put Rigondeaux on the canvas, I doubt Rigondeaux will put that many points in the bank, but if he does, and Lomachenko is frustrated, behind, but on the offensive, how will he deal with the pressure?, will he come apart, become reckless, desperate, make himself a target for Rigondeaux?, or will he do what champions do, show adaptability, use his frustration to his advantage, and pull out what could be one of the best victories of his career?

My prediction is Lomachenko by unanimous decision, 114-112, 115-111, 116-110.

Rigondeaux wins it with a vicious body shot KO/stoppage due to an accumulation of body punishment. Don't ask me why or what round.

Rigondeaux, on top being one of the P4P best fighters in the world, just seems to have a certain cold spitefulness to him. But he seems like someone who, when he sets his mind on doing something, he does it regardless of what it costs him. And you're making a horrible mistake if you get in his way or try to tell him "No". Maybe that's just the "vibe" he gives off, maybe that's just my imagination, idk. Lomachenko, to me, doesn't have that same spitefulness.

I'm going with my gut feeling here. Don't really care if I'm wrong.

My thoughts on this fight:

Obviously with his age and size advantage, Lomachenko is favoured to win.

Most of us are excited about this fight because both men are arguably going to face the toughest opposition in each of their careers, and because both men are the most decorated amateurs in modern boxing history.

No doubt this fight is going to be highly technical, but I don't think it will happen the way some people imagine.

Both Lomachenko and Rigondeaux are technicians with some unique styles. However, their unique styles are unlikely to be apparent in this fight, at least not immediately.

Sometimes, Rigondeaux is practically a left-handed fighter. Jabs are hard to land in southpaw-orthodox match-ups, so instead of trying to land his right jabs Rigodeaux just paws slowly with his right and lull his opponent into a slow rhythm, before jolting them with quick and hard left hand.

Rigodeaux's modus operandi is not going to be as effective here as Lomechenko himself is another southpaw.

Sometimes Rigodeuax's defense involves bending at the waist to avoid punches.

While bending at the waist gives you upper body mobility, it sacrifices feet mobility, which might be dangerous against an opponent like Lomachenko who is active at taking angles.

Lomachenko is a fighter with a very high output, which is partly why casuals embraced him while they denigrate Rigondeaux as boring. However, among Lomachenko's output, many of them are pitter-patter punches for Lomachenko hide his hard shots amidst a sea of light punches. Watch any highlight reels of Lomachenko, most of it will be him raining punches on an opponent desperately trying to cover up with a high guard. Many of his opponents intimidated by his high output just put up a high guard. Ironically, the more you cover up the more Lomechenko will batter you, for his light punches obscures vision (which is already obscured when you put up an earmuff) and distracts kinesthetic senses, allowing him to set up his hard shots which most opponents had no idea where it would come.

Lomachenko cannot intimidate Rigondeaux with such a strategy. Rigondeaux does not use a high guard, in fact I rarely see him ever use any kind of guard. Such was his mastery of distance. Furthermore, I think a master boxer like Rigondeaux should be able to tell when Lomachenko is bluffing with his hands and when Lomachenko is really going to punch hard. So if Lomachenko bluffed too much or too obviously with his pitter-patter punches he would be countered to death by Rigondeaux.

Another reason why Lomachenko is so beloved is his fancy footwork. The hype surrounding it is making me sick. 'Is this the matrix fighter from the future' et cetera. Right now I feel it is hard to tell how much of his footwork is substance and how much is flash. If I am not mistaken Gary Roach is somewhat of a critic of Lomachenko's footwork, and personally sometimes I feel he moved more than necessary. Lomachenko does showboat occasionally and do some unnecessary moves, he should not showboat against Rigondeaux. The downside of Lomachenko's angles and pivots is that if Rigondeaux sees them coming, Rigondeaux can time them and nail Lomachenko. I cannot think of a better time to nail Lomachenko than that, if Loamachenko got hit with a hard shot mid-pivot he can be knocked down.

For all the differences in their usual strategies they have one stunning similarity: absolute confidence in one's own ability and absolute disdain for their opponents'. Rigondeaux does this by fighting down to his opponent's level, doing the barest minimum to cruise to a decision he is 100% certain he will win. Lomachenko does this with his showboating, which puts him at unnecessary risk.

Ultimately, both fighters have such distinct styles because they are fighting against inferior boxers and almost all these boxers are orthodox fighters.

Long story short, expect the fight to start conventionally and both fighters to fight more conventionally for their usual styles or strategies will not be effective against each other. Southpaw-southpaw match-ups are basically orthodox-orthodox match-ups in mirror image, so that means a battle of right jabs at the beginning. Both fighters are counter-punchers at heart, so whoever can bait the other to lead will have the upper hand.

I suppose one strategy that might work against Lomachenko is to run.

Uninformed casual fans call Rigondeaux a 'runner' but a runner he is not. Rigondeaux is extremely economical with his movements, he mostly takes small steps forward or backward or occasionally make pivots around his left foot.

If Rigondeaux really starts back-pedaling and move laterally with his back on the ropes he could give Lomachenko fits. Every boxing prospect or titlist looks awesome until the fans realise he cannot cut off the ring. Erislandy Lara gave Canelo fits simply because Canelo has no idea how to cut off Lara. As far as I am aware of in Lomachenko's short career so far his ring-cutting ability has not been really tested.

Of course, it is unlikely for Rigondeaux to break character and starts running, as Rigondeaux is a man of absolute integrity in his approach to boxing; he never breaks character. But if Floyd Mayweather could break character and fight Conor like a Mexican, why not Rigondeaux?

As to what strategies they will actually employ against each other, I have no idea. No doubt, this fight will involve a lot of feints. Feints are keys to finding out an opponent's habits and from there they can devise their own game plan. Just very generally speaking, which I think applies to just about every fight, whoever trained more appropriately and was smarter in the ring will come out of winner.

However, even if Rigondeaux proves to be the superior boxer he might still be overpowered by Lomachenko.

The Cuban is going up two weight classes, while he clearly bulked up physically whether his power and stamina carries up is another question. In recent memory, Juan Manuel Marquez fared disastrously when he climbed to meet Floyd Mayweather. We are far removed from the days of Harry Greb whipping opponents who outweighed him by like 20 pounds. If Rigondeaux cannot make Lomachenko respect his power, he is going to be in deep trouble. Rigondeaux is also pushing 40, and he is a smoker, plus he is climbing 2 weight classes, if he starts having stamina issues or starts slowing down he is a sitting duck.

Furthermore, there is that Bob Arum factor. The saying goes 'WBO' stands for 'Whatever Bob Orders'. If Arum somehow found a way to mess up Pacquiao-Horn scorecards as some boxing fans seem to believe, then Arum can potentially mess with the scoring of this fight too. My pessimistic gut feeling is that, if the fight does to a decision and if Rigondeaux does not dominate Lomachenko in a Donaire-esque performance then Rigondeaux will be badly screwed on the scorecards.

Which goes back to why I said Lomachenko is favoured to win.

However, I desperately want Rigondeaux to win this one. The man is an absolute maestro, the finest boxer to grace the pro scene since Floyd Mayweather. He left his entire life behind in Cuba just to pursue a career in the world of pro-boxing, and yet pro-boxing f***s him over. He put on a masterful performance against Nonito Donaire, only for be dismissed and insulted by reporters and his former promoter Bob Arum. They called him 'boring' and 'a pain in the ass to deal with' blah blah blah. Absolutely disgusting, reporters are supposed to understand the intricacies of boxing! How can watching a master ply his craft be boring? A promoter is supposed to promote his fighters! Arum's comments and actions against Rigondeaux are utterly disgraceful. Then there is all the ducking shenanigans, the Featherweight division is full of cowards who wanted no part of Rigondeaux.

On the other hand, I want to like Lomachenko but I am having a hard time liking him. The morbid marketing hype surrounding him and his fans who eat up the marketing wholesale is putting me off. He is not the greatest fighter since Muhammad Ali, he is not the next Pernell Whitaker, he is not a revolutionary fighter from the future. Dude only has 10 pro-fights under his belt, sure he is a two-divison world champion but titles come more easily in this era of alphabet soups, please stop comparing his greatness to all-time greats in the past when his career is still in its infancy. Lomachenko does have some interesting footwork, but cutting angles is nothing new under the sun, Orlando Canizales was doing it way before it was cool and I am sure there are even older fighters I do not know who can cut angles too.

If Rigondeaux beat Lomachenko, despite all the disadvantages, I would consider Rigondeaux Pound-for-Pound number one. If Lomachenko beats Rigondeaux, I would say good job he finally had a good name on his career.

I am really just ranting now, so I'll stop here.

Tl;dr-Both fighters fight conventionally, a good tactical battle, Lomachenko likely to win.

I think Rigondeaux will edge this one, beat Lomachenko with his movement, he's a clever chap is Rigondeaux. I think Rigondeaux, 8-4, something like that, Lomachenko to do a little bit better in the second half, but not enough.

Although it wouldn't matter to me who won, I am pulling for Rigondeaux. It just feels like Loma isn't facing the same adversity that Rigo is (8 yrs older, physically smaller, moving up in weight).

Outstanding performance from Vasyl Lomachenko, he's a better boxer than I thought!
Very sad for Rigondeaux, but to have afforded the disadvantages in weight, age, he would have had to have been much, much better than Lomachenko, he didn't have the work rate, he couldn't his reach, and Lomachenko dominated that fight, he took him to pieces, and it was a master class from the Ukranian.

Not surprised by the outcome. Loma just had to impose his bigger size against Rigo in close quarters. Although I thought Rigo would make it harder for Loma to change angles, Loma just walked him down and neglected Rigo's reach.
Everything was against Rigo in this fight. It might look good in paper, but don't think it's a great win for Loma. Just a win.

Lomachenk post fight interview:
"He is a Good Fighter. He is a Top Fighter. He is the King in boxing. But he is king in boxing in his weight category. It's not his size, it's not his weight. So It's not a big win for me".

I gave Nicholas Walters so much criticism, for quitting against a guy who wasn't beating him up, just giving him a boxing lesson. Lomachenko was winning that fight, he wasn't giving him a boxing lesson, he was just better than Rigondeaux, and if Rigondeaux quit because of that, that is absolutely disgusting, and I wouldn't normally say this about any professional, but he doesn't deserve his purse, if he's quit because of that, because he was losing, feeling sorry for himself, because people have paid to watch this fight, two masters of their trade fighting. I can't believe I'm criticising a genius like Rigondeaux, it's almost embarrassing, but, it is an insult, to every honest professional fighter, and fan, to be honest, to see a guy like this with all this ability and skill, quit, because he was getting outboxed, if that's what happened, and out fought, by a better fighter.

I can't swallow that that was about the hand, I think he was feeling sorry for himself. If it is his hand, I apologise for that comment, but even then, I'm not even sure if it's a valid excuse, in a fight of this magnitude, the biggest fight of your life.

I don't see when in the fight he hurt his hand, that's the left hand which he wasn't using. I thought Rigondeaux was feelibg sorry for himself, and I thought he was going to get himself disqualified, and I had a horrible feeling in my head he was going to get himself disqualified, because, he was losing everything, and now there's an exucse for why he lost, he'll want a rematch, but it'll never happen, he's ruined his career, he'd have been better off, just getting beaten, being beaten fair and square.

Just like Walters, Rigondeaux wasn't getting beaten up, but he was getting frustrated and outboxed, but Rigondeaux wasn't really getting schooled.

No points for loma here. If loma went up 2 weight classes to fight crawford, people would be crying rivers when he got ko'd, yet it happens here and everything's supposed to be ok? Also, I watched the fight live and those commentators blew lomachenko the whole fight. They literally stated that fighting dirty made him a more complete fighter (in reference to leaning down of rigos head to get rigo to stop holding and loma losing to salido because salido smashed his groin). I know rigos no saint valentine (the nonsense with flores, hitting yotjan when they touched gloves, questionable holding tactics) but I never saw any of his usual stuff, all I saw was loma puching down on the back of rigos head and rabbit punching. I understand rigo is semi turned away from his opponent and likes to get low, but he never did anything illegal. Loma did. Those are the facts here. I liked loma, up until this point, but this was disgraceful. It reminds me of Wilder beating up that 180lb mentally handicapped guy, it's something that just cannot be excused. No matter what he does from here on out, this will forever be a blemish on him.