Report: Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux possible for December 9th on ESPN

Vasyl Lomachenko’s next fight is penciled in for December 9th in New York, and it looks as if he may take on Cuban 122-pound champion Guillermo Rigondeaux.

After comfortably dispatching the overmatched Miguel Marriaga earlier this month, reigning WBO junior lightweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (9-1, 7 KOs) is set to return to the ring on December 9th at Madison Square Garden Theater in New York.

According to Dan Rafael, Lomachenko’s next fight will once again be airing live on ESPN, and the opponent will certainly intrigue at least hardcore boxing fans.

Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-0-1 NC, 11 KOs) is the reigning WBA super bantamweight (122 lbs) champion, and is considered one of the top pound-for-pound boxers in the world. He’s a technically proficient boxer with one of the greatest amateur backgrounds of all-time. For a myriad of reasons, not the least of which is the belief that his style of fighting doesn’t always make for great TV, he’s not been able to really manage a high-profile bout for several years. The Cuban is best known for putting on a boxing clinic against Nonito Donaire, winning by unanimous decision in 2013. Since then, it’s been a series of matchups against ho-hum opposition, although his most recent bout ended in a bizarre no-contest against Moises Flores, who was clearly hit after the bell and then dropped to his back. Somehow this was ruled a legal KO, and then the result was overturned.

Rigondeaux has been actively chasing this fight, engaging quite frequently with Lomachenko and his manager on social media. Like Lomachenko, he is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and if this fight happens, it’d be the first time in boxing history that a pair of two-time Olympic champions have ever faced each other. The obvious thing to point out here is that Rigondeaux would be moving up two weight classes, so he would be undersized. At 36 years old, it’s also a question of whether or not he’s already seen his best days pass him by.

Lomachenko won the WBO 130-pound title away from Rocky Martinez at MSG Theater last year, and has since defended it three times, first making Nicholas Walters quit last November, then forcing corner stoppages after prolonged beatdowns of both Jason Sosa and the aforementioned Marriaga. Either a Rigondeaux fight or a title unification against one of the other three junior lightweight champions has been in the cards for Vasyl’s December date, so we’ll keep you updated on whether or not we see Lomachenko vs. Rigondeaux materialize, or if something else gets made instead.