Kell Brook: My Injuries Were Legit - Rigondeaux Just Quit!

[Ruthless-RKO]

Brook is very firm in stating that his stoppage defeats should in no way be compared to what transpired last weekend in New York City, when Guillermo Rigondeaux quit on his stool after six rounds of action with WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko.

Rigondeaux, who barely threw any punches in the fight, cited a serious hand injury for refusing to fight on. He believed that his left hand was broken. But it was revealed on Tuesday by his own promoter, that his injury was nothing more than a bad bruise and there was no fracture.

Brook was not a happy camper with last Saturday's outcome, because he strongly feels that these types of endings are harmful for the sport of boxing.

"I think it was terrible for boxing. He just quit, he just quit. With me, I had both eyes [affected]. It's not like I had one eye [hurt] and I could see out of the other eye. When I opened my eyes, they went cross-eyed. It was triple vision. My vision was terrible. It was a completely different injury," Brook explained to BS.com.

"I've had cuts in fights, I've had my eyes closed up in fights, I've broken my hands in fights - and I continued. But with this [thing with Rigondeaux] it was completely different - he quit. As far as seeing that, it's not good to see because he took it away from the fans who wanted to see a fantastic fight.

"I think that the other guy [Lomachenko] was definitely going to get the top side of Rigondeaux. He was bigger and more clever. I watched the fight and he was very sharp, and the angles he was using he was very on point."

[Ruthless-RKO]

A quitter trying to use a high profile quitter to make himself look less of a quitter.. Yeah okay..

[gilgamesh]

Kell Brook needs to get a "Pipe down baby face" on this one

Rigo loses doesn't somehow make Brook's losses less significant, nor heal his orbital bones

[IKSRTFO]

To be fair, Brook legit had a broken eye socket. Rigo's hand wasn't broken.

[gilgamesh]

To be fair, Brook legit had a broken eye socket. Rigo's hand wasn't broken.

I realize that. Trying to excuse your loss by pointing out somebody else's loss is pretty f*cking weak though in my opinion.

[Ruthless-RKO]

To be fair, Brook legit had a broken eye socket. Rigo's hand wasn't broken.

I realize that. Trying to excuse your loss by pointing out somebody else's loss is pretty f*cking weak though in my opinion.

That's what I was saying.

Also at the time, Rigo may have thought it was fractured.

[gilgamesh]

To be fair, Brook legit had a broken eye socket. Rigo's hand wasn't broken.

I realize that. Trying to excuse your loss by pointing out somebody else's loss is pretty f*cking weak though in my opinion.

That's what I was saying.

Also at the time, Rigo may have thought it was fractured.

Rigo knew he wasn't injured. You'd know if you were injured. He just didn't want any more. He wanted out of a fight where he was getting his ass kicked. That's all. It's not that big a deal.

[SenorPipino]

He's 37.

He decided to preserve his body for a few more fights before retiring.

He only earned $400,000 for what was supposedly a super fight, so Rigo probably will continue boxing.

Why he really stayed in his corner, I don't know, outside of my "preservation" theory.

I never felt he was really hurt in the fight. Rattled on a few occasions but never in any true trouble.

Hell, Loma only landed about 15 punches a round himself. Like Rigo's, his connect percentage was abysmal.

So unable to cope with the speed of a younger, bigger man, the aging Cuban decided to go home and fight another day.

And yeah, I bet his hand hurt a bit too.

[gilgamesh]

He's 37.

He decided to preserve his body for a few more fights before retiring.

He only earned $400,000 for what was supposedly a super fight, so Rigo probably will continue boxing.

Why he really stayed in his corner, I don't know, outside of my "preservation" theory.

I never felt he was really hurt in the fight. Rattled on a few occasions but never in any true trouble.

Hell, Loma only landed about 15 punches a round himself. Like Rigo's, his connect percentage was abysmal.

So unable to cope with the speed of a younger, bigger man, the aging Cuban decided to go home and fight another day.

And yeah, I bet his hand hurt a bit too.

Your hand hurts a bit after a few rounds of just about any Boxing match I'd figure. It had nothing to do with why he quit. He quit because he knew he couldn't win, and wanted to go home.

I don't doubt that his decision to call it a night had a lot to do with wanting to preserve himself for a few more fights though. That being said, quitting in the anti-climactic fashion that he did will definitely hurt his drawing power going forward...and he already had virtually no drawing power to begin with.

Quitting is Boxing's greatest sin. Especially when you had no real reason for it.

I personally don't fault guys who've had enough, and decide to call it a night, but many Boxing fans are a lot more harshly critical than that. Hell I used to be myself until I grew up a little.

[SenorPipino]

Well, quitting never really hurt Duran. And his No Mas performance is one of the most notorious moments in boxing history.

People have short memories. Only hard core fanatics will recall Rigo taking a walk. The rest will forget his questionable decision.

His marketability will be undamaged, because, as you say, Rigo has limited drawing power to begin with.

But he's still a name in boxing, and he'll eventually be forgiven because he was courageous enough to take a risk by moving up 2 weight division at the advanced age of 37.

Do you really think that Rigo is taking the outcome casually? He hadn't lost a fight in 14 years, never as a professional.

As a classic Cuban fighter, Rigo probably doesn't easily accept losing. I bet the defeat is tearing him up.

I give Rigo credit for putting his reputation as one of boxing's best on the line in the biggest high profile bout of his career. Against huge odds.

Only he truly know exactly why he bailed, just as only Duran knows why he walked away from Leonard 37 years ago.

Duran would go on to redeem himself over the next decade. Let's see if Rigondeaux can also make even partial amends.

[boxing_rocks]

Rigo's marketability is in fact undamaged, as you can't damage zero.

[lazboy]

Any reasonable person would have stopped with the injuries Brook endured and had endured in his previous fight. Why risk it, for the respect of a few keyboard boxing fans who don’t show respect anyhow, he’s got a life to think about. On the other hand I have no sympathy for Rigo. The situation is not comparable. He has a bruised hand. He was not in a war. After all the build up, he gave up when things weren’t going his way. I’m sure he’ll regret that for the rest of his life.