By Jake Donovan

All week long, boxing fans and experts alike suggested that the co-feature battle between featherweight titlist Steven Luevano and mandatory challenger Bernabe Concepcion would wind up stealing the show.

It wound up doing just that, if only for all of the wrong reasons.

A slow-paced game of cat-and-mouse suddenly proved dramatic, as Luevano left the ring with his alphabet belt still intact after a seventh-round disqualification win over Concepcion at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The bout served as the chief support for the “Pinoy Power 2” pay-per-view telecast. Both fighters weighed in at 125.5 lb, just under the 126 lb featherweight limit.

Luevano was perhaps too relaxed in the opening round, allowing his high octane challenger to dictate the pace and land the cleaner and harder blows. The most telling sequence of the round came midway through when Concepcion connected with a jab to Luevano’s chest, knocking off balance just enough to leave him wide open for a follow-up left hook upstairs.

Perpetual motion was suggested from the body language of both fighters, but very few punches followed. Luevano was the busier fighter of the two, relatively speaking, with a right hook from the southpaw stance perhaps serving as the difference in a round with so little to choose from.

The sold-out crowd voiced their displeasure in the third round, another frame in which so little happened as both fighters continued their cat-and-mouse game. Luevano tried to change that in the fourth, picking up the pace for the first time in the fight. The California-based southpaw controlled the action from the outside on the strength of his jab and pinpoint accuracy.

Concepcion’s lack of aggression served as a source of frustration for head trainer Freddie Roach, who demanded his fighter work behind jab more often and apply far more pressure.

The Filipino challenger hardly heeded the advice, instead sticking to his same early fight strategy of posing and looking for one punch at a time. His complacency did little to impress the judges, although the wait-and-see approach paid off when he landed a right hand body shot that knocked Luevano off balance late in the round.

Round six opened with both fighters warned for low blows. For whatever reason, it motivated both fighters to pick up the pace, if only for the moment. Luevano quickly returned to pawing with the jab, while Concepcion all but refused to let his hands go.

Drama would finally come about in the seventh. Unfortunately, it was synonymous with how the fight ended.

Concepcion darted in and out to begin the round, landing a right hand but nothing else as he quickly reverted to one punch at a time. Luevano regained control midway through the round, though action picked up towards round end, with both fighters getting paid down the stretch including a right hand by Concepcion just before the bell.

However, the shot was nowhere as damaging as the one that would follow.

So impressed was Luevano with the spirited late round exchange that he dropped his hands after the round and nodded in the direction of his challenger. What he didn’t realize was that Concepcion apparently never heard the bell, and was still ready to fight. A right hand by Concepcion caught a surprised and defenseless Luevano flush, sending him to the canvas in the proverbial heap.

Referee Jay Nady, who could’ve done a much better job of positioning himself between the two fighters at the bell, grabbed Concepcion and immediately waved off the bout, ruling the punch a flagrant blow.

The final verdict was a disqualification at the end of the seventh round.

Luevano’s record moves to 36-1-1 (15KO), though it wouldn’t be completely accurate to say anything but his record improved after the fight. He is now unbeaten in his last nine fights, but might’ve lucked out on this one.

Two of the three judges had Luevano up on the cards when the fight was stopped, but there was no telling where the fight was heading, especially considering that Concepcion came on at the end of the seventh (and too much after, as well).

The untimely blow, to put it mildly, results in a 22-fight unbeaten streak coming to an end for Concepcion, whose record dips to 29-2-1 (16KO).

To his credit, Luevano was open to the suggestion of a rematch, though his view on the fight wasn’t quite in line with the pro-Filipino crowd on hand.

 “Why not? It was a pretty good fight,” said the California native when asked about the rematch, though his comment on the entertainment value that came with the fight was met with a chorus of boos.

“Well, I don’t know if anyone else though, but I thought it was a good fight.”

Perhaps the only other opinion that truly matters in the grand scheme of things would be the one who puts money in his pockets. Promoter Bob Arum was impressed enough with the fight to ponder the possibility of a return go.

“It’s unfortunate… but these things happen,” sympathized the Hall-of-Fame promoter. “I will try to put together a rematch for December, and with both of these fighters to make more money than they made tonight.”

Hopefully they will also provide more legal excitement than they provided tonight… as well as a conclusive ending.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.