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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. [details]
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. [details]
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