Rigondeaux began to feel the weighty shame of being bamboozled. (Adam Hunger/AP)
A great fighter can handle being beaten in the ring, but it’s humiliating to be duped into a bad spot by politics and business…
I tried to be a diplomat and ambassador for the sport. When people asked me about Lomachenko vs. Rigondeaux, I had a nice, non-confrontational (for me) answer to give—Rigondeaux would have to be Superman to win.
It was sad to see so many hardcore boxing fans so amped up for a fight where the outcome was pretty much pre-determined. I usually enjoy bursting bubbles, but not this time—Boxing fans wanted so badly to believe in this one. So, I didn’t shake them back to reality too violently. But anyone “smart” in the game knew what was up.
There was no way that Bob Arum and the Top Rank crew would’ve signed off on this one if they felt that there was even the slightest sense that Rigondeaux could beat and/or embarrass their prized Loma.
In a sense, Lomachenko-Rigondeaux was every bit as much of a fix as anything done behind closed doors involving shady characters making shady decisions behind the scenes.
As I wrote over at Fighthype.com:
“And the masterful thing about this Lomachenko-Rigondeaux fix was that it was done in plain view and sold so expertly that people—even some usually smart boxing people—were actually debating that the pre-arranged patsy would take the win.
“No, this fight wasn’t made by Top Rank promotions with the idea that Rigondeaux would win or even could win. But the cult of Guillermo Rigondeaux fandom is so intense, so dedicated, that even if the Cuban master boxer were to be dumped into a shark tank for a tussle with a raging Great White, many of the Rigo true believers would be arguing to the very end that “The Jackal” shouldn’t ever be counted out of a fight. Very few other fighters could be sold as a viable opponent in a “dream fight” like we just saw, given the longshot chances of actually winning.”
Rigondeaux fans (and boxing purists in general) were the perfect patsies for a con like this. A fight pitting a semi-retired Manny Pacquiao against Gennady Golovkin or a fully retired Bernard Hopkins against Anthony Joshua would be laughed off as hopeless overreaches or as cynical matchmaking in favor of the bigger, younger fighter.
Coming into Saturday, Lomachenko had significant advantages in height, weight, age, and activity. He also had the “home field” advantage in the sense that he was an Arum fighter fighting on an Arum card against someone, a one-time Arum client, who has most definitely been on the aged promoter’s enemy list since he embarrassed one-time Top Rank hot property Nonito Donaire in 2013.
It practically would’ve taken a shift in the time-space continuum for Rigondeaux to upset plans and come away with a victory Saturday night. And one gets the feeling that Rigondeaux, himself, began to fully realize that reality just a few minutes into the fight.
Outstanding boxing writer and former fight manager Charles Farrell, in his most recent piece for Deadspin, drew a comparison between Rigondeaux and Roberto Duran when it comes to personality type. And this comparison is especially brilliant after seeing the way Saturday’s fight ended.
Rigondeaux, much like Duran in the infamous “No Mas” rematch against Sugar Ray Leonard in 1980, chose to quit rather than be embarrassed and humiliated for the remainder of the contest. And possibly also like Duran, Rigondeaux, once falling behind as expected, began to feel the weighty shame of being bamboozled into taking a fight with odds so heavily stacked against him.
“Screw it…this is not even a fair fight….I’m done.”
Those are the thoughts of a proud warrior saving face after taking a fight he shouldn’t have taken. A great fighter can handle being beaten in the ring, but it’s humiliating to be duped into a bad spot by politics and business.
Lomachenko is a truly great fighter. None of this should in any way diminish what he can do in the ring. He’s the best fighter at 130-135, with the possible exception of Mikey Garcia (who may or may not be headed back to lightweight). But Lomachenko beating Rigondeaux proved about as much as Gennady Golovkin would prove by beating up Manny Pacquiao at 160.
As for Rigondeaux, it’s sad that he had to stretch himself so far for a main stage payday. It’s even sadder that he may now carry with him the black label of being a “quitter.”
Waving off a game played with a stacked deck is not quitting as much as it is waking up and realizing the folly of pushing forward when there was never really anywhere to go in the first place.