By Elisinio Castillo
Pedro Diaz, trainer of Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KOs, 1 NC), is confident his boxer would hand Vasyl Lomachenko (9-1, 7 KOs) his second career defeat.
There are ongoing discussions to finalize this contest for a date in December in New York City.
Rigondeaux, who is the WBA world champion at 122-pounds, would move up by two weight divisions to face Lomachenko, the WBO super featherweight champion, at 130-pounds.
Diaz is hoping that Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum is serious about finalizing the fight and not just talking.
"First, we have to verify that the intentions of Bob Arum, the boss of Top Rank, are real. He is a businessman, it's nice to say things in words, but we need them to come true. Two boxing champions, two Olympic champions in the professional ring... such a fight would raise more expectations than Mayweather and McGregor," Diaz told George Ebro.
Diaz is not worried about the weight and he is not worried about Lomachenko being taller. He says Nonito Donaire, who has heavy hands, was a more complicated fight. Rigondeaux made a big statement when he outboxed the heavily favored Donaire and had him in trouble in the final round back in April of 2013.
"We have recently seen fights at intermediate weights, and there are cases like Kell Brook and Golovkin, Amir Khan and Canelo, but neither Brook nor Khan have the quality of Rigo. Lomachenko is a great boxer who punches with frequency, but without power. I consider Nonito Donaire to be more complicated than Lomachenko," Diaz said.
"Lomachenko is five centimeters taller than Rigo, but my fighter beat up tall men like Marroquin, Nonito himself, Amagasa.... look at what happened [when he faced taller men].'
Diaz believes Rigondeaux became a direct target for Top Rank and HBO, because of what he did to Donaire.
"From that moment they wanted to sell him like a boring, monotonous boxer, because no one expected the beating that he gave that night. The promoters lost some of their business, they lost a hen that laid the golden egg. With the support of a powerful promoter and with the right connections you can go far. A promoter can make champions, but also destroy a star, as they have done with Rigo," Diaz said.
2023-10-19 09:52:16
