By Jake Donovan (photo by Joel Perez/PRBBP)
For the past couple of years, Juan Manuel “JuanMa” Lopez has been regarded as among the best young fighters in the sport today. What was missing was the notable opposition to confirm the rumors.
Those days are now well within his sights.
With a highly anticipated showdown with Rafael Marquez hanging in the balance, Lopez did his part to make it a reality. Before a partisan crowd at Coliseo Jose Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Saturday night, Lopez overcame a first-round knockdown to score three of his own en route to a second round knockout of Bernabe Concepcion.
Lopez weighed in at 125.3 lb for the Showtime-televised featherweight title fight; Concepcion came in slightly lighter at 125 lb.
Boxing fans couldn’t ask for a better start to the fight, with both fighters hitting the canvas in what is a certain contender for Round of the Year.
Lopez came with the heavy artillery early, appearing to be well on his way to scoring the 11th first-round knockout of his young career. A left hand sent Concepcion stumbling across the ring early in the fight, though the worst part was yet to come. Lopez smelled blood and went for the kill, flattening the challenger midway through the round for the bout’s first knockdown.
Concepcion was alert enough to remain poised as referee Luis Pabon administered the mandatory eight count. A right hand landed for the Filipino immediately after action resumed, but Lopez hardly seemed to notice as he continued with his barrage.
What would capture the Puerto Rican’s attention was a looping left hook late in the round to send him to the canvas and momentarily silence what was otherwise a rabid partisan crowd.
Lesson learned, as he would own up to believing the fight was already over before getting caught himself.
“I was a little overconfident and thought I had the fight in control, but Concepcion is a strong fighter and just caught me with a good punch,” Lopez admitted after the fight. “I have to learn to not be overconfident.”
The undefeated featherweight was able to compose himself well enough to end matters like a professional in the very next round.
Any thoughts of Concepcion gaining momentum from the round-ending sequence were immediately vanquished just moments into the second round. A vicious straight left deposited him on the canvas for the second time in the fight.
While once again beating the count, it was clear that Concepcion was suddenly in way over his head. Lopez was relentless – yet disciplined – in his pursuit of a knockout, and would achieve it just before rounds end.
A right hook had Concepcion out on his feet as he staggered to a corner. Lopez didn’t let the opportunity pass, racing in and icing him with a laser-like straight left to separate the Filipino from his senses.
Referee Luis Pabon gave him every chance to continue, but ended the count early and waved off the bout once it became obvious that Concepcion had no clue where he was.
Lopez improves to 29-0 (26KO) with the win, racking up the first defense of the alphabet featherweight belt he picked up earlier this year when he stopped long reigning titlist Steven Luevano inside of seven rounds.
Concepcion falls to 28-4-1 (15KO), having now lost two of his last three fights. The prior loss came via seventh-round disqualification against Luevano late last year in his other failed bid at alphabet glory.
He earned the title shot versus Lopez when he scored a mild upset over Mario Santiago earlier this year, but seemingly has a long way to go before being taken seriously as a major threat.
Quite the opposite is true for Lopez, who is on a mission to prove that he is the best featherweight in the world. The long-term plan for Lopez remains a potential superfight with fellow unbeaten rising star Yuriorkis Gamboa, but a big name and payday resides in his immediate future.
“Rafael Marquez is a great fighter and I’m looking forward to fight him.”
The fight with Marquez was already on the table prior to Saturday, though contracts had yet to be finalized until Lopez took care of business against Concepcion.
Mission accomplished and now it’s on to the biggest fight of his young career, which is slated for September 18 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
DONAIRE STOPS MARQUEZ IN EIGHT; BANTAMWEIGHT RUN NEXT?
Pound-for-pound entrant Nonito Donaire once again reminded the boxing world why he is regarded as the best little big man in the sport. The top rated Filipino overcame struggles at the scales and early experimenting with a new style to stop Hernan “Tyson” Marquez at the 2:59 of the eighth round of their televised co-feature.
Few expected the bout to be very competitive, but Donaire opted to flirt with disaster, boxing from the southpaw stance for the first four rounds of the bout. The style switch was a tribute to two of his all-time favorite fighters – Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker, but all he got for the tribute was a face full of leather in the early rounds.
Marquez, a natural southpaw, enjoyed success with his straight left early on, at one point knocking Donaire off-balance, though not to the point of a knockout threatening to happen.
Donaire picked up the pace in the third round, but remained in the southpaw stance until he felt it was absolutely necessary to switch to orthodox. That moment came in the fifth round, at which point the fight ceased being competitive, though Donaire insisted that going about business any other way would’ve denied what he sought from the fight.
“I knew I could figure him out right away, but I wanted to practice my lefty style,” Donaire revealed. “I couldn’t counter him the way I could other guys. I took the beating, but I think I needed that.”
No longer did he have to worry about the incoming the moment he flipped to orthodox. The switch to his normal stance resulted in immediate damage, dropping Marquez with a clean left hook in the fifth round for the first of two knockdowns in the fight.
The second knockdown ended the fight, coming three rounds later as Donaire flattened the Mexican with a picture perfect left uppercut. Marquez tried in vain to make it to his feet, but couldn’t focus long enough to convince referee Roberto Ramirez that he was fit to continue.
It was the ending Donaire had in mind all along.
“Every mistake he made, I was going to throw the uppercut,” insisted Donaire, who improves to 24-1 (16KO), having now won 23 straight after suffering the lone loss of his career in just his second pro fight nine years ago.
Marquez drops his second straight as he falls to 27-2 (2KO).
The fight could very well be Donaire’s last at the 115 lb. limit. The Filipino struggled mightily to make weight, reportedly three pounds off of his target weight during the middle of fight week.
The one fight that was keeping him at the weight was a rematch with Darchinyan, whom he knocked out three years ago almost to the date to put his name on the map.
A deal was in place for the two to rematch earlier this year, only for the fight to fall apart when their respective camps couldn’t agree on how to properly split the foreign rights.
While the rule of thumb in boxing is ‘never say never,’ the prospects of moving on to bantamweight seem about right for Donaire, who has for quite some time struggled to boil down to 115 lb.
Not only is Donaire anxious to move up, but ready to take on the biggest fish in the pond.
“There’s a possibility (of rematching Darchinyan), but it’s out of my hands. We gave them the opportunity to rematch, but they didn’t want to make it happen.” We have Montiel, we have other options in the future.”
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
