The months-long feud between WBO Super Featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko and WBA Junior Featherweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux could come to an end come December.
Lance Pugmire of the LA Times reported that Lomachenko and Riondeaux will fight on December 9 at Madison Square Garden, headlining an ESPN-televised card.
The fight will be for Lomachenko's WBO title and it will be the first world title fight between two two-time Olympic gold medalists. Rigondeaux won the gold medal in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics and Lomachenko won gold in the 2008 and 2012. Both men have a combined amateur record of 859-13.
The fight will probably garner the biggest ratings for ESPN for a boxing match since the Manny Pacquiao vs. Jeff Horn fight from back in July. The December 9 telecast's ratings will be boosted tremendously because the fight comes after college football's Heisman Trophy presentation ceremony.
Lomachenko vs. Rigondeaux has been in the works for quite some time, even before Lomachenko defended his title against Miguel Marriaga on ESPN in early August. Lomachenko stopped Marriaga inside seven rounds.
Rigondeaux, the WBA super bantamweight champion, last fought in June when his fight against Moises Flores ended in a no contest. There was a chance that Rigondeaux and Flores would fight again after Rigondeaux knocked out Flores after the first-round bell rang in their fight, but Rigondeaux has expressed interest in fighting Lomachenko instead. Rigondeaux is the eighth-best pound-for-pound boxer on the official Fightful boxing rankings while Lomachenko is the fifth-best pound-for-pound boxer.