This guy is my favourite fighter in the sport right now, insane skill. Loma-Rigo is the best fight to be made in boxing IMO, ahead of even Kovalev-Ward or Ward-GGG.
I'm with you. The skill level is RIDICULOUS... Jab, feints, distance, timing, accuracy, footwork, can work the head and the body, and that defense. I would say the two best fights that can be made now are Loma-Rigo and Kovalev-Ward. The winners of those fights have a solid argument as being pound 4 pound number 1.
People just assume that Rigo can once again reach the level had against Donaire. He might not ever reach that level again. He's gonna need to be EVERY bit as good as he was in the Donaire fight to beat Loma.
Problem for Rigo is that there's a big difference between Donaire and Loma. ONLY thing is Donaire has better one-shot power than Loma. Everything else, Loma does better. He's also a great thinker, and Donaire's ring IQ was always suspect IMO. On the flip side, Rigo is a lot more skilled and intelligent than Russell Jr. It's a very good matchup, but based on age and momentum, it'd be silly not to make Loma a slight favorite. Not saying Rigo isn't capable of pulling it off, cuz he is.
Agreed. I hope it's made sooner rather than later. There's no need for the match-up to "marinate", Arum just needs to hurry up and put it together.
Arum says he wants the fight, Loma wants it, and Rigo wants it. He said Rigo's promoter, Caribe, is fuckin it up. Now, Arum is a pathological liar, but I believe him on this. Rigo is being handled by clowns.
Some of you are letting hbo hype cloud your judgement. Sure he looks good, his footwork his superb, and has great bodypunching, but he has a lot of flaws, and hes not (yet) a top 5 p4p. I still think he would lose vs the Salido he lost against. What worries me the most is his lack of explosiveness, as when i first saw him in Pékin, he was literally a human bomb. Now, he seems to have lost this, and he turned onto a volume pitty patter
Totally disagree with the first sentence, totally agree with the second. Loma came close of winning against weight-cheating Salido when they fought. Now with more professional experience under his belt (most notably from that fight) I have no doubt Loma would beat him clearly. Something did happen to Loma between 2008 and 2012 however. In Beijing he stopped everybody out but in London he concentrated on not getting hit. He changed his weight category from feather to light between those games but that doesn't explain it all. To me, it seems that he has decided not to commit to his punches but instead take less shots and win by accumulation. As long as it works, good for him, but he could use his former explosiveness against the best.
He'll need to be an explosive, come-forward destroyer against Rigo. If he boxes with Rigo he most likely loses. Assuming, of course, Rigo can channel his Donaire form.
Could be his hands? Heard them say he has hand problems. That could be a reason to change his approach...
