I have one last question to you guys about the Rigo vs Loma fight?

[ruedboy]

Rigo's smart. After the first round, he knew he wasn't beating this guy and he didn't want to get KO'd, so he held on for a few rounds and then he quit.

[brettWall]

The guy duped a lot of people even he started believing he was really this boxing wiz.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

There are a lot of excuses like the weight, he got scared, he hurt his hand, he was old, he sold the fight and so on and so forth.

My question is this: Rigondeaux has shown in his entire career great footwork including lateral steps, pendulum steps, jump back steps, left and right turns/pivots, feints, half steps, etc. He's shown this in his sparring, he's shown this when he hits the mitts, even in his training 2 days before the fight he showed all these characteristics that made him who he is/was.
In the fight though, he didn't show any of these characteristics that have made him who he is now and that's why it was so easy for Loma to outbox him and so frustrating watching it. Let's say the weight slowed him down, let's say his reflexes weren't there anymore, where did his skills go? I am not even talking about punching.

This often happens when to elite fighters meet. Lomachenko negated a lot of those skills you mention, Rigo’s great footwork was essentially negated by Lomachenko’s superior footwork. Loma’s better gauging of distance never allowed Rigo to utilise his footwork as Loma always remained in the correct punching range when in offence. The fact that Loma also had a size and speed advantage also aided him in negating Rigo. A lot of Rigo’s techniques are extremely textbook so lose a lot of effectiveness when coming up against someone as unique and dynamic as Loma, I think Rigo realised very early on he was unable to out-manoeuvre Lomachenko so started looking to hold and essentially spoil. You could see the reluctance in Rigo to let his hands go as he wouldn’t be able to move out of punching range and would be countered. Which goes completely against his hit and don’t get hit boxing principles.

It’s similar to the way Floyd completely negated Marquez’s great timing with his even better timing, and again size played a part in that also.
It can even happen when both guys are the same size, Roy Jones’ amazing speed and accuracy completely negated the majority of Toney’s superb technical abilities.
That’s boxing for you, styles make fights��