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Rigo won 2 golds at the world cup, pan am games and 7 Cuban national titles facing Gamboa, Mammadov, Sooltonov, Mendez Rau'shee Warren, Yankiel Leon, Barthelemy, Hallab, Petchkoom x3, Kovalev and so on
Fans just look at Lomachenko's numeral statistic and haven't a clue who he faced not to say he didn't fight many top, top amateurs.Comment
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he fought yuri gamboa? what year was that?
i'm not especially clued-up on amateur boxing, but surely loma and rigo would have faced a similar level of competition in the world championships and olympics? most of the names you listed don't stand out any more to me than the names on lomachenko's amateur recordComment
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I'm not voting because I'm only familiar with a few notable names on Rigos amateur resume and only a couple on lomas.
In all honesty I question whether anyone on this site is qualified to answer this question objectively unless we have some amateur boxing experts who watch thousands of fights. Really people are just going to vote for whoever they like better.Comment
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They would both have won a third gold medal at the olympics if they wanted to I reckon.
Interesting that Rigo is probably past his prime as a fighter now. A bit like Zou Shiming, but the decline isn't as significant. Shiming was clearly a superior fighter at the 2008 games.
Lomachenko on the other hand is probably in his prime now.Comment
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Wow you left out numerous just as good..
Boris Lagutin (middleweight) -Two time Olympic Champion, Two time European championships winner, six time USSR champion.
Jerzy Kulej (Light welterweight) -Two time Olympic Champion and two time European champion. He had a record of 317 wins, 6 draws and 25 losses.
Vasy-Valeriy Popenchenko (middleweight) - Olympic champion, two time European champion, six fold USSR champion. (Val Barker winner)
Vyacheslav Lemeshev (middleweight) - Olympic Champion and two time European champion. Lemeshev knocked out four of his five opponents to win the gold medal. Beat the likes of American Micheal Spinks.
Serafim Todorov (Featherweight/Bantamweight) - Three time world amateur champion, three time Europe champion.
Henry Maske (Middleweight/Lightheavyweight) - Olypmic gold medallist, three time world amateur champion, three time Europe champion
Gennadiy Shatkov (middleweight) - Olympic Champion and two time European champion.
Hw's:
Nokolai Korolev - Absolute Soviet Champion (1936,1937,1944, 1945) 9 time Champion of the USSR (1936-1939,1945-1949) Champion of the Socialist Olympics in Antwerp (1937)
Alexander Yagubkin - World champion, three time European champion, fourfold USSR champion, two time World Cup reward owner, absolute champion of USSR. Never participated at the Olympics.
Igor Vysotsky - 185 fights, 161 victories, half of which ended early. Beat Teofilio Stevenson twice and the likes of Tony Tubbs, Mitch Green, Greg Page etc Never participated at the olympics.
Alexei Lezin Alexei Lezin - World amateur championship gold medal winner who beat both Klitschko's & Valuev in the 90's. Never turned pro.
Aleksandr Miroshnichenko - Medalled at all the major championships. Beat the likes of Lennox Lewis and Rid**** Bowe. Won 210 out of 233 fights.
Wladimir Klitschko - Won olypmic gold and a european silver, finished with an amateur record of 134–6 (65 KOs)
Ruslan Chagaev - Captured the world amateur title twice but was stripped of one due to having two professional fights at the time. Went 2-1 with the great Felix Savon. Won 82 of 85 fights.
Alexander Povetkin - Won gold at all the major tournaments, has a record of 125–7 with all loses avenged.
Oleksandr Usyk - The most recent of the bunch, won olympic gold and world amateur gold.
Ulli Kaden (- Medalled four times over a decade at the european amateur championships, beat the likes of Teofilio Stevenson, Lennox Lewis
Good list though but Golota beat Balado so I think he should get a mention too.Comment
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As for the thread topic:
Its close but personally i would go with Loma:
They share a common opponent, Sultonov. Rigondeaux beat him 27-13 at the 2004 Olympics, four years later Lomachenko fought him at Beijing and won 13-1, knocking him down in the last round & Sultonov rates Lomachenko as the better fighter!
Rigo had 12 losses and Lomachenko had 1!
Lomachenko also has a Val Barker trophy which Rigo never won!Comment
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High Tech by far!!!!!Comment
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Where are you guys getting this 12 losses number for Rigondeaux from?
He's amateur record has always been 243-4, even from his own mouth.
For someone who's watched Olympic boxing very closely and having watched both Rigondeaux in 2000, 2004 and Lomachenko in 2008, 2012 the question of who's better is without a doubt Rigondeaux.
Just keep this in mind, had Rigondeaux not been banned in the 2008 Olympics, there is not a amateur boxing expert in the world who would have picked Lomachenko as a favorite over Rigondeaux either in 2008 or 2012. Regardless of their records.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the amateur competition in Cuba is a lot harder and you face a lot harder opposition on a monthly bases than you do in Ukraine.
Lomachenko is great amateur and his record is incredible but that's what most people here are making their judgements on. Just the numbers.
Keep this in mind, unlike Rigondeaux Lomachenko emerged in the amateur ranks at the perfect time. Rigondeaux emerged in 2000 but shared the spotlight with Felix Savon who went on to win his 3rd Gold Medal. In 2004 he again shared the spotlight with Kindelan (who beat Khan for the gold) winning his 2nd Gold Medal. Regardless of this, every commentator in the tournament still labeled him the best amateur in the world.
Lomachenko came in 2008 and 2012 when competition in the Olympics was not necessarily the strongest and there were no superstars coming back. In 2008 guys near his division or already olympic champions like Gamboa, Barthelemy and Rigondeaux were all absent (having all defected) so it opened the perfect chance for Lomachenko to emerge. Have no doubt that all three guys, would have all been though of higher than Lomachenko.
The claim of greatest amateur ever is a promotional tool from Top Rank and HBO which they leveled Rigondeaux a few years ago when they were promoting him (go back and look at the press conference for Cordoba, for Ramos etc) and are now using it for Lomachenko since they stopped promoting Rigondeaux.
Neither guys is the best amateur ever, guys like Stevenson, Papp, Savon, etc all did a lot more than both guys.
But in terms of pure skills, even in the amateur way more than in the pros, ask people who've covered a lot of amateur boxing and most will tell you that skill wise not many have ever come close to Rigondeaux.
We're talking about a guy who for an entire Olympics never took a sit on his corner stool in between rounds and very rarely did his corner ever speak to him. Just go back and look at the tapes, it was a different level.Last edited by SonOfCuba; 01-01-2015, 02:23 PM.Comment
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