WBO featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez (29-0, 26 KOs) scored an eighth round TKO over former two-division world champion Rafael Marquez (39-6, 35 KOs) on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Some of you will probably consider this fight a candidate for fight of the year but I probably won’t.
At the sound of the bell, both fighters began analyzing each other and by the second round the heavy artillery began but it was Lopez who had a better accuracy and without doubt Marquez is one of the elite fighters in the game. He kept swinging and swinging but other than the fourth round, in which he badly hurt Lopez and had him in danger of going down, he was regularly taking the worst of it.
Juanma sent Marquez staggering across the ring with a left hand and Marquez looked exhausted and was breathing heavily. Lopez was also deducted a point for a rabbit punch. Lopez had the upper hand from round six on, Marquez quit on his stool after the eighth round because he said he injured his right shoulder.
Marquez said he came in to the fight with a messed up shoulder and didn’t want to postpone the fight again and that is why he decided to fight but to me it didn’t appear to be hampering his performance. Lopez simply seemed too big and too strong for Marquez, who was hurt by nearly everything that Lopez landed. Marquez didn’t know how to defeat the young Puerto Rican so he blamed it on his shoulder. Though it was an exciting seven rounds, there was no way Marquez could have won. The judges had it 78-73, 77-73 and 77-74 for Lopez when it was stopped.
Without doubt it was Lopez toughest challenge yet. After the fight Bob Arum, who promotes Lopez, said he’s going to put Juan Manuel Lopez against WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa in June 2011, now that should be interesting.
In the evening’s co-feature, veteran boxer Glen Johnson earned the final spot in the Super Six World Boxing Classic Semifinals with a knockout win over Allan Green.
Man his injury was genuine, I said to my mate after the 5th round that it looked like he had a problem. The fight was even until then, and was starting to heat up.
Hope we get a rematch, then Lopez can have Gamboa.
As for Lopez, I think his record is going to his head. He looked much too over-confident at some points. If he tries that against Gamboa, he’ll be in real trouble.
@Gabriel Aguinaga nicely said. I agree.
Marquez should just give Lopez full credit for his win cuz I couldnt see a way for Marquez to win no matter what.
I hate to say it .. But I gotta be realistic ……I agree with both of u guys…..
Couldn’t agree more. There was NO WAY Marquez was going to survive even 2 more rounds. And he knew it. He looked TOTALLY exhausted, he reminded me of how he looked in round 12, against Vazquez in their 3rd battle. Only this time, this was not the last round. If you have boxed in a ring, even a few rounds, then you know that when ur that tired, 1 minute feels like a freaking hour. So yah, i don’t buy the bs excuse, but at the same time, he saved himself the embarrassment of being KOed. This guy always makes excuses when he loses, what excuse could he made for “I got KOed”
But now, he can go home and tell everyone “he injured” his shoulder. But I think we know better.
Finally, i am not biased at all. I was actually rooting for Marquez, i am 100% Mexican and my rooting was all for him. But it sucked to see him go out like that. IMO, You just can’t make quitting look pretty, no matter what your excuse is.
Peace!
Spread the love, and destroy the hate.
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