“JuanMa” Remains Undefeated in Two Round Thriller!

Last night in the featured bout of the evening from San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Showtime, undefeated WBO featherweight Champion Juan Manuel “JuanMa” Lopez (29-0, 26KO), got up off the canvas to defeat Bernabe “Real Deal” Concepcion (30-3-1, 17KO), by second round kayo.

To start the first round, “JuanMa” tagged Concepcion on the chin with a right-left then followed up a moment later with a counter-left that caught the Filipino off-balance and sent him careening across the ring and into the ropes. Lopez went after his foe with controlled aggression landing hard combinations while Bernabe threw his knock-out punches in retaliation but found nothing but air. Lopez then caught Concepcion with a straight-left right-hook that clipped Concepcion on top of the left side of his head above his ear, sending him to the canvas hurt and dazed.

After getting up Concepcion was in survival mode and Lopez came after Bernabe hitting him with straight left after straight left, blasting Bernabe all over the ring. With thirty seconds to go in the opening round, Lopez landed another huge left hurting Bernabe and causing him to retreat to the corner. Lopez opened up and threw about ten unanswered punches, and right when it looked like it might be stopped, the Filipino threw a counter left with his back against the ropes that caught Lopez above his right ear, dropping and dazing the Puerto Rican. “JuanMa” was fortunate that there were only seconds left in the round and Bernabe wasn’t able to follow up.

To start the second round, “JuanMa” landed another straight left that put Concepcion on his butt again. After beating the count, Concepcion came back and landed some hard rights to the mid-section of Lopez. With thirty-nine seconds left in the round, “JuanMa” landed a counter right that staggered Concepcion and as Bernabe retreated with his hands down, Lopez chased him down and tagged him with a straight left that sent Concepcion crashing to the floor for the third time. Concepcion was badly hurt and stumbled trying to get up causing the third man in the ring to wave off the fight, producing a knock out for the Puerto Rican who retained his WBO featherweight strap in a very entertaining two rounds.

Next for the Puerto Rican superstar will be a mega-fight with former bantamweight and super bantamweight champion Rafael Marquez (39-5, 35KO), on September 18, 2010, at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Promoter Bob Arum conveyed the only thing needed is the signature of Lopez on the contract.

In the co-main event Nonito “Filipino Flash” Donaire (24-1, 16KO), defended his interim WBA super flyweight championship, with a TKO over the live and competitive Hernan “Tyson” Marquez (25-2, 18KO), in a twelve round contest.

Donaire came out in his experimental left-handed stance that he promised in pre-fight statements he would stick with the whole fight. Marquez was landing rights and lefts in the early rounds that he may not have landed if Donaire wasn’t switch-hitting which allowed Marquez to win some early rounds in a close start. Marquez wasn’t able to get on the inside against his bigger opponent but was doing well on the outside landing punches up top. In the second, Donaire opened up and started landing hard straight lefts to Marquez’ jaw line. The two southpaw fighters were trading blows and both were landing in a competitive match.

Early on, Marquez was using good head movement and counter-punching, landing crisp right-hooks to the head and body as well as hard straight lefts. The fighters went toe-to-toe with Marquez slightly getting the better of Donaire, landing the cleaner punches. Fighting left-handed was not working out for Donaire, he was landing punches but the lefty stance was producing chances for Marquez to hit him and Marquez was taking full advantage of those opportunities.

Donaire had a big fourth landing hard hooks and upper-cuts with both hands while Marquez took the punches well. To start the fifth Marquez blasted Donaire with a four-punch combination that caused the Filipino to switch to his natural right-handed stance for the first time in the fight. At 1:22 of the fifth round in a hard exchange, Donaire, now orthodox, landed a massive counter left-hook followed up by a hard straight right that buckled Marquez and knocked him down, though he survived the round.

Marquez was holding his own and winning up until the knock down in the fifth when Donaire switched to his orthodox stance and started punishing Marquez. Once Donaire went right-handed, he began fighting tall and was hitting Marquez at will. To me it looked like Donaire was playing in the ring and could finish his opponent off anytime he chose but was probably looking to get in rounds which he confirmed after the fight.

Once Donaire took over in the fifth he never looked back. With eleven seconds left in round eight, Donaire landed a left upper-cut that floored Marquez, prompting the Mexican’s trainer Rudy Perez to show mercy on his student by stopping the fight which gave the “Filipino Flash” a round eight TKO to retain his championship belt.

Donaire took a lot of punishment in his victory though, getting hit clean and often. A lot of that was because Donaire allowed it by expermenting, testing and trying new things in the ring. When talking about being hit often, Donaire stated in the post fight interview that he needed that and that he needed rounds. Donaire showed offensive skills in the southpaw stance landing hard jabs, hooks, lead-lefts and upper-cuts. He was hit too often in his lefty experiment by a smaller fighter who was not top competition.

If Donaire can refine and improve his left-handed defense, he could be a good switch-hitter. I think it may be a little late in his career for that though, you can’t be experimenting with top level competition which Donaire actually has a hard time securing, so maybe he will get to play the mad scientist some more in the future. In the post fight interview Donaire stated, “I am more powerful left-handed, you haven’t seen it yet, it’s just a matter of time when you are gonna see a “Sweet Pea” or a “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler.” Donaire’s goal of being a great switch-hitter is risky, and we may see him getting up off the canvas soon if he persist on fighting unorthodox.

With WBA, WBC unified super flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan (35-2-1, 27KO), seemingly not wanting the rematch with Nonito, it looks like Donaire will move up to bantamweight to pursue a scrap with WBO, WBC bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel (41-2-2, 31KO), who defends his title against late replacement Rafael Concepcion (14-4-1, 8KO) next week in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico.

For Marquez it was a big step up in competition and he did well, showing talent and heart. He was just too small for his bigger, stronger opponent. I could see Marquez doing well dropping down to flyweight fighting guys his size. Hernan Marquez was an entertaining fighter that I will be keeping my eye on.