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July 11, 12:01 PMLas Vegas Boxing ExaminerChris Robinson
Last night at the Coliseo Jose Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Juan Manuel Lopez stopped tough Filipino challenger Bernabe Concepcion in two wild and frantic rounds. With the win Lopez moves to his record to 29-0 with 26 knockouts while successfully defending his WBO featherweight belt and while the history books will always show a ‘TKO2’ victory for Juanma there was much more to the story of the fight.
Concepcion was staggered early in the fight and dropped shortly thereafter. The 22-year old was in serious trouble but turned the contest around with a blistering left hook that dropped Lopez towards the end of the round. Concepcion tried to pick up on his momentum in the second round and this proved to be his downfall. He came out aggressively only to be dropped from a straight left hand and stopped moments later.
It was a victory that showed Lopez’ strengths and deficiencies at the same time. One man who was watching the contest with a vested interest was Las Vegas based trainer Jeff Mayweather, who oversees the duties of interim WBA featherweight king Celestino Caballero. Asked for his assessment of Lopez’ performance, Mayweather saw the signs of a true champion.
“He came back strong,” Mayweather said of Lopez. “He was hurt. He has no quit in him.”
In recent years Caballero has been clamoring for a showdown with Lopez to no avail. The Puerto Rican is now in line for a September 18th matchup with Rafael Marquez at the MGM Grand and the Panamanian is now on the outside looking in. Despite that harsh reality Mayweather is still optimistic and feels that his guy has the tools to upend Lopez.
“It wouldn’t be a walk in the park,” Mayweather says of a Caballero-Lopez fight. “But at the same time it could be a very easy fight if Celestino sticks to his game plan. We already have a game plan for him anyways. It doesn’t matter what he brings to the table, [Caballero] throws too many punches. Don’t get me wrong, Lopez has good punching power too and it’s always a risk fighting a guy who can punch. Plus he is a southpaw with fast hands. At the same time Celestino can punch as hard as either of those guys.”
In referring to ‘either of those guys’ Mayweather reveals that he is speaking of WBA champion Yuriorkis Gamboa, whom Caballero was initially in talks to fight this month before the fight fell apart. Gamboa is now penciled to face WBC titlist Elio Rojas and when looking at the situation Mayweather reveals that all he and his charge can do is stay prepared until their moment comes.
“In this business you can’t force anyone to fight you. You just have to continue to work. Before his fight with [Daud] Yordan, Celestino just came out here. There was nothing on the dais. So basically we are going through the same thing again. He’s out here working hard. He’s not going to allow himself to get caught sleeping. He may get a call from people assuming he’s out of shape. That’s the only type of fight he’s going to get, none of these guys under Bob’s umbrella.”
Last night at the Coliseo Jose Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Juan Manuel Lopez stopped tough Filipino challenger Bernabe Concepcion in two wild and frantic rounds. With the win Lopez moves to his record to 29-0 with 26 knockouts while successfully defending his WBO featherweight belt and while the history books will always show a ‘TKO2’ victory for Juanma there was much more to the story of the fight.
Concepcion was staggered early in the fight and dropped shortly thereafter. The 22-year old was in serious trouble but turned the contest around with a blistering left hook that dropped Lopez towards the end of the round. Concepcion tried to pick up on his momentum in the second round and this proved to be his downfall. He came out aggressively only to be dropped from a straight left hand and stopped moments later.
It was a victory that showed Lopez’ strengths and deficiencies at the same time. One man who was watching the contest with a vested interest was Las Vegas based trainer Jeff Mayweather, who oversees the duties of interim WBA featherweight king Celestino Caballero. Asked for his assessment of Lopez’ performance, Mayweather saw the signs of a true champion.
“He came back strong,” Mayweather said of Lopez. “He was hurt. He has no quit in him.”
In recent years Caballero has been clamoring for a showdown with Lopez to no avail. The Puerto Rican is now in line for a September 18th matchup with Rafael Marquez at the MGM Grand and the Panamanian is now on the outside looking in. Despite that harsh reality Mayweather is still optimistic and feels that his guy has the tools to upend Lopez.
“It wouldn’t be a walk in the park,” Mayweather says of a Caballero-Lopez fight. “But at the same time it could be a very easy fight if Celestino sticks to his game plan. We already have a game plan for him anyways. It doesn’t matter what he brings to the table, [Caballero] throws too many punches. Don’t get me wrong, Lopez has good punching power too and it’s always a risk fighting a guy who can punch. Plus he is a southpaw with fast hands. At the same time Celestino can punch as hard as either of those guys.”
In referring to ‘either of those guys’ Mayweather reveals that he is speaking of WBA champion Yuriorkis Gamboa, whom Caballero was initially in talks to fight this month before the fight fell apart. Gamboa is now penciled to face WBC titlist Elio Rojas and when looking at the situation Mayweather reveals that all he and his charge can do is stay prepared until their moment comes.
“In this business you can’t force anyone to fight you. You just have to continue to work. Before his fight with [Daud] Yordan, Celestino just came out here. There was nothing on the dais. So basically we are going through the same thing again. He’s out here working hard. He’s not going to allow himself to get caught sleeping. He may get a call from people assuming he’s out of shape. That’s the only type of fight he’s going to get, none of these guys under Bob’s umbrella.”
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