By Steve Kim
Last Saturday night, in just one stunning round, Juan Manuel Lopez became the latest in a long line to come off the island to win a world title. That island, of course, would be Puerto Rico, which seems to produce champions as if they were mass produced and shaped as if they came off an assembly line.
Ford and General Motors have to be impressed.
The numbers are actually a bit startling, considering that the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has a population of only four million. Yet it has produced seven boxers who have been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. This list includes its first world champion, Sixto Escobar, and then Wilfredo Benitez, Wilfredo Gomez, Carlos Ortiz, Edwin Rosario, Pedro Montanez and Jose Torres. Soon, icon, Felix Trinidad will be included. And currently, Miguel Cotto and Ivan Calderon are consensus members of the mythical pound-for-pound class.
But back to Lopez, who faced the reigning WBO jr. featherweight titlist Daniel Ponce de Leon this past weekend at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. His bout, which was the opener on the HBO telecast that featured Kelly Pavlik's blowout of Gary Lockett, was thought by many observers to be the real main event of the night.
Instead, it was an even quicker destruction. He took two less rounds to dethrone Ponce de Leon than Pavlik needed to retain his middleweight crown.
After boxing his way through the first half of the initial stanza, a ripping right hook - which was set up by a lead left hand - would nail the usually stout Mexican on the jaw, sending him crashing to the canvas. Because Lopez is a southpaw, Ponce de Leon never seemed to see the shot coming his way. From there, a dazed Ponce de Leon would bravely attempt to fight his way back into things but was unable to hold off the precise onslaught of Lopez. After a second trip to the canvas, referee Michael Ortega had no choice but to halt the proceedings at 2:25 of the first.
Coming in, it was thought that this matchup would be a classic battle of boxer versus puncher. But instead, the boxer would out-punch and out-execute a fighter who had made six defenses of his title coming in. Ponce de Leon will never be known as a great stylist or particularly gifted boxer, but nobody had ever beaten him so convincingly. His lone blemish coming in was a tough 12-round affair against current WBA 122-pound titlist Celestino Caballero back in 2005.
“I told everyone it was going to be like seven, eight rounds before I would knock him out. But I'm surprised, we're all surprised that we finished that early," admitted Lopez through Top Rank publicist Ricardo Jimenez. Regarding the punch that opened up the floodgates, he would say, "I knew he was hurt. He got up but I didn't want to endanger myself to go out there and get knocked out myself. So I took it easy, I looked again, but I knew he was hurt."
What was as equally impressive as his jolting power was the poise and calm he showed in systematically dispatching a hurt foe. Despite being just a veteran of 22 fights (20 of them won by knockout) and still only 24 years old, he looked like a seasoned pro.
Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez are currently the best the division has to offer. But 'JuanMa' is clearly its future.
And he could be the next great Boricua boxer.
"We always knew coming out of the 2004 Puerto Rican team that he was the charm of the class, like Cotto was out of 2000," said the President of Top Rank, Todd duBoef, whose company co-promotes Lopez. "Coincidentally, both come from Caguas. He's another fighter who takes his orthodox hand, which is his right hand, and makes it his lead hand - just like Cotto made his left hand his lead hand. And he has a really, really good counter right hook and has a lot of skill."
Some wondered if this title opportunity had come a bit early for Lopez. Especially in light of how another undefeated prospect, Rey Bautista, had gotten blitzed by Ponce de Leon last summer.
"We knew he had the skill. We didn't know if he had the physical maturity," said duBoef. "But my matchmakers, they know how to do it, and Bruce Trampler felt it was a 50-50 fight, maybe Ponce as a little bit of a favorite. But he says you gotta give him the opportunity, you gotta let the thoroughbred go."