Juan Manuel Lopez Barely Beats Mtagwa in a War

[Syf]

to me there are two ways to look at this fight...

Points, and what actually happened.

He was on the run a lot and Mtagwa had him far more hurt than Juanma ever had him. Thats why, no doubt, Mtagwa thought he won, because in a real fight he would have.

But Juanma won on points.

Its interesting to note though, if their roles were reversed, and Mtagwa was the protected young prospect instead of Juanma, I can see Mtagwa getting a decision in his favor based on his performance.

[S.G.]

Oh wow, need to download this ASAP

You know I actually had a feeling this'd be a tough one for Juanma but I never thought it'd be as tough as it sounds it was

[prsi]

Props to JuanMa for surviving that fight. Having nothing in the tank and being completely knocked out (yes knocked out while standing), he managed to hold when he needed and threw enough punches to save the fight from being stopped. He also hadethe awareness of looking for the screen in the arena to find the clock. That showed a lot of heart.

Props to Mtagwa for coming to fight and trying to win. He to showed lots of courage and a huge huge chin. The man fought his ass off in the ring.

The decision was fair, probably not 116-111 but Juanma did win the fight and it was a great fight, IMO good candidate for fight of the year.

Having said that this fight showed lots of flaws in Juanma which he will need to overcome in order to be the elite fighter that it has been expected that he will be. True it is a good learning experience but it is not the 1st time that i have seen this from Juanma.

Against Peñalosa although more dominant he also got wreckless in his offense and also received several good punches. Probably we have not seen this flaw because of how early Juanma had finsihed his previous fights, but he will need to realize that he will not always ko hi oponents and there when he need to use resources that he will need to develop.
Here are several flaws that I saw that Juanma will need to improve against the elite boxers of those divisions:

Lack of use of his Jab, It is outrageous the how man few jabs Juanma used in this fight and by the way I don't remember hearing his corner emphasizing on this matter either. Instead of using his jab he spent most of the fight trying to counter Mtagwa jab with his hook.

Hardly went to the body. All of Juanma shots were 95% aimed to the body and there are fighters out there they will have the chin to hold Juanma's power especially when he moves up Therefore he will need to work more the body of hid opponents.

Punch accuracy. Juanma missed way to many shots for a guy that didn't show great defense or movement in the ring. Instead of throwing so many inaccurate shot he needs to time and pick better his punches which will help him on his defense also, which leads me to the next flaw.

Awful defense. For most of the fight Juanma hardly had his hand stans up and the long right hand from Mtgawa that could be seen coming from Yankee Stadium because he is not fast, Juanma had no answer, defense or cover up for it. A true elite hard punching fighter at 126 would had probably knocked him out much earlier.

I wish the best for Juanma and I'm still his fan, but he needs polish and improve a lot to go up to the top elite boxers at 126. He is still young and can improve. If i'm one of his advisors I would hold of the Januar date, enjoy the holidays and start working on these issues that like i said, not only happened in this fight but against Peñalosa i saw lots of it also. The difference was that he was not as rocked as he was against Mtgawa.

If Juanma fails to improve on these issues he would probably win some more titles but I don't see him as a P4P threat as he has been advertised.

[AP♠]

I think the problem is that Lopez had already been built up into a future superstar and seeing him struggle with what was viewed as a clubfighter has let down a lot of people's expectations.

Lopez can surely come back from this, as Williams and Cotto did, but any aura of invincibility that he may have had has been shattered by this fight.


Another problem is that Bob Arum will likely avoid putting Lopez against any real threats in a long time. He won't develop his skills fighting the kind of people he has been fighting.

Very well spoken.The thought of invincibilty for Juanma has been wiped out and erased.He is viewed as vulnerable now yet as dangerious.


I think the next time he makes a statment is on a performance of a lifetime against a Grand champ.There's no blame that any boxer will face a sleeper at one point of his career.

[Access_Denied]

First I will Say Props to Mtagwa for givin Juanma the fight of his life.

Second Juanma have balls teh size of a melon.

Third Why Mexicans are trying to diss Juanma, when ther very own, Victor Ortiz quit in a fight that wasnt half as violent as this one and for so long!!!

Ignorance!!!!! First off all Ortiz is American, I believe the term we use nowadays is Hispanic. He is not from Mexico so he's not a Mexican. So your post is just shows your Ignorance! Don't get mad because your boy Juanma got his ass handed to him by a guy with 12 losses. That was his overconfidence, hes a got mad skill but he was fighting Mtagwa's fight and if there would have been maybe even 1 min left he would have been on his ass.

[Iceta]

The sad thing is that HBO has got a date on hold for this smoke screen of a fighter when he doesn't even deserve it. I wouldn't be saying that if he didn't scratch Cab off the list of his potential opponents. But now Arum is talking about matching him up with fucking Steven Luevano. Are you kidding me? This makes me want to take back some of the mean things that I've said about Cotto, because at least he's got genuine talent and fights good opponents.

And say what you want about Gamboa, but at least he's fighting tougher opposition than Juan Ma and winning a lot more impressively. If that fight ever happens Gamboa slaughters Juan Ma.

[Check]

Just watched the fight and all I have to say is, DAMN!

[oldgringo]

I just watched the first two rounds of this fight and it's pretty easy to see that Juanma has fallen in love with his punching power. Good lord, he has completely dismissed the jab and is wasting so much ****ing energy bouncing around the ring pointlessly.

He has superior skills, he just needs to get his head together. His ****iness has shot off the meter.

The sad thing is that HBO has got a date on hold for this smoke screen of a fighter when he doesn't even deserve it. I wouldn't be saying that if he didn't scratch Cab off the list of his potential opponents. But now Arum is talking about matching him up with ****ing Steven Luevano. Are you kidding me? This makes me want to take back some of the mean things that I've said about Cotto, because at least he's got genuine talent and fights good opponents.

And say what you want about Gamboa, but at least he's fighting tougher opposition than Juan Ma and winning a lot more impressively. If that fight ever happens Gamboa slaughters Juan Ma.

The only real opponents Gamboa has faced are Jimenez and Rojas. The rest were pretty hopeless. Penalosa and Ponce were better, more accomplished fighters than anyone Gamboa has faced.

Lopez has all the talent in the world. He showed poorly and will most likely come back stronger.

[AntDawg]

I had it a draw or you could have gave it to Mtagwa since it seemed he owned the 2nd half of the fight and won the 12th 10-8. I'm surprised the fight wasn't stopped since Lopez did absolutely nothing and was just getting hit at will and legs were gone.

[PoetryInMotion]

wasnt expecting a close fight.