Vasyl Lomachenko expects Guillermo Rigondeaux’s age to get the best of him in historic fight

Whether Guillermo Rigondeaux is 37 or even older, Vasyl Lomachenko says he believes the Cuban’s age will get the better of him in their anticipated Dec. 9 super-featherweight title fight in New York.

“At this weight, it’s not like heavyweight. When you fight as a heavyweight, you can still have one-shot power and fight long … but when you’re in the smaller weight category, you need to have your reaction, your speed,” Lomachenko said at a media day with reporters at his manager’s gym in Oxnard.

“After 30 years, your speed and reaction slows down. At 35, 36, your mind tells you you can do things, but you can’t because it’s in nature. You can’t use the same speed you had 10 years ago.”

The ESPN-televised meeting at Madison Square Garden’s Theater between 29-year-old, two-division champion Lomachenko (9-1, seven knockouts) and super-bantamweight champion Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KOs) is historic, marking the first-ever title-fight meeting between two former double Olympic gold medalists.

“I’m excited, because for a lot of people who understand boxing, I’m happy to be part of this history,” Lomachenko said. “It’s a very interesting, big challenge.”

While Lomachenko is building his audience with an eager willingness to pursue action fighting and knockdowns, Rigondeaux’s over-reliance on patience, defense and counter-punching has made him one of boxing’s most boring elite fighters.

“My father [and trainer] tells me to watch [Rigondeaux’s fights], and I’m like, ‘I don’t have time.’ I don’t like it,” Lomachenko said.

“He has a very special style, a very different style that’s hard to box. It’s hard to find a key … how the distance will be … is hard for us. Half of the fight will be a mission to find out what we can do. I need to open his defense. I need to chase him, and not forget about my defense. Because he’ll wait and wait and wait for me, and then I’ll open. So it’s twice as hard.”

Lomachenko, who agreed to a same-day weigh-in in order to seal the fight deal, objected to the idea Rigondeaux is taking a massive risk by moving from 121 pounds to 130.

“I saw his last fight in Las Vegas,” Lomachenko said. “He’s not small. I’m not bigger. We’re like the same size. I’m a little higher,” 5-foot-6 to 5-4.

“He wanted this fight. We signed a contract. You know why he’s fighting me? Because his career is finishing and he wanted money. His purse is the biggest of his career. That’s why he moved up two weight categories to fight me.”

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimespugmire