Editor's Note: After the fight was over, it was revealed that ring announcer Michael Buffer read the wrong score of 116-116. The score was actually 116-111 for Lopez, which gave him a unanimous decision win and not a majority decision.
By Mark Vester
At the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, WBO super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez (27-0, 24KOs) won a close majority decision over Rogers Mtagwa (26-13, 18KOs) to retain his title in a war. The scores were 116-116 a draw, 114-113 and 115-111 for Juanma.
In the first round, Juanma landed some good right hands to shake Mtagwa up. In the second, Mtagwa began to fight Juama in toe to toe fashion. The third was another brawl with the Mtagwa giving as good as he got. A clash of heads opened up a cut above the left eye of Lopez in the third. In the fourth, Mtagwa continued to come forward and pressed the action. Juanma stopped fighting him on the inside and backed off to give them space.
During the fifth, Mtagwa was knocked down while he was off-balance. Mtagwa tried to make it a brawl, Juanma stayed away and landed good shots from long range. The sixth saw Juanma continue to use distance to stay away and pick his shots. During the seventh, Mtagwa landed a big right hand at the start. Mtagwa continued to press the action and throw punches while Juanma stayed back and looked for big counters.
In the eight round, Mtagwa was coming forward and landed some big punches. Juanma took them well and countered with harder punches to push Mtagwa back. The two of them would brawl in the final minute with huge punches being traded. Mtagwa rocked Lopez in the first minute of the ninth. At the bell, Juanma got rocked again as Mtagwa landed a big shot. They started brawling at the start of the tenth. It was an all-out brawl as they traded and traded, both of them getting rocked during the action.
They were brawling in the eleventh with Juanma getting buckled by a few punches. Juanma came back at the end of the round with some hard shots to buckled Mtagwa and then in the final ten seconds Mtagwa rocked Lopez very bad as the bell rang. In the twelfth, Mtagwa continued to come forward. He had Juanma in very bad trouble and battered the unbeaten champion. It was a miracle that Juanma was able to stay on his feet and take the punches. His legs were not there and he was dazed. He stayed away and held for almost the entire round as Mtagwa tried to put him away but Juanma made it to the bell.
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