Guillermo Rigondeaux suffered bruise, but no broken hand vs. Vasyl Lomachenko
Guillermo Rigondeaux quit on his stool against Vasyl Lomachenko, citing a left hand injury, and now we know it wasn’t a break.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist and WBA 122-pound champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-1-1 NC, 11 KOs) certainly became a lightning rod for criticism after quitting on his stool at the end of round six in his highly anticipated showdown vs. Vasyl Lomachenko. The Cuban southpaw opted to end proceedings due to an injury to his left hand, and negative reaction towards Rigondeaux’s decision was heavy.
In the post-fight interview, Rigondeaux said that he injured the top of his left hand in the second round, and continued to fight with it through round six.
X-rays on Rigondeaux’s hand were not available last Saturday night in New York, as apparently the wait in the emergency room was simply too long. Rigoneaux instead had his X-ray taken in Miami, where he now resides, and according to Dino Duva (via ESPN’s Dan Rafael), there was “No break, but severe contusion on left hand.” In other words, Rigondeaux suffered a bruise. CompuBox numbers had him landing just 15 of 178 punches (8.4%) on Lomachenko, who himself wasn’t terribly accurate either (16.2%), but certainly threw and landed far more than Rigondeaux did.
As if that wasn’t enough, Rigondeaux, who moved up two weight classes to take on the WBO junior lightweight champ, is expected to lose the WBA 122-pound title he currently holds. Rigondeaux was supposed to take a mandatory rematch with Moises Flores after their first fight ended in a wacky no-contest, but Rigondeaux was granted special permission to take the Lomachenko bout, with the condition that had he beaten the Ukrainian, he’d have five days to decide if he’d defend his 122-pound title, or lose the title outright by losing to Lomachenko.
Needless to say, while Rigondeaux had previously gone undefeated for more than a decade in the amateur and professional ranks, this was a damaging loss on multiple fronts.