By Manuel Perez: In somewhat of a surprising upset, undefeated Puerto Rican super bantamweight challenger Juan Manuel Lopez (22-0, 20 KOs) stopped WBO super bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce de Leon (34-2, 30 KOs) in the 1st round on Saturday night to take his title away from him at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. De Leon, 27, was knocked down twice in the round and received a cut above his left eye. Lopez, 24, dropped de Leon with a left-right combination on the seat of his pants.de Leon, badly hurt, attempted to get up and fell down on his first try.
When he did finally get to his feet, he was staggering badly as the referee checked him over. Seconds later after eating a flurry of shots from Lopez, De Leon went down again from another right hand. He struggled to his feet, but this time the referee Mike Ortega halted the fight at 2:25 of the 1st round. It’s hard to tell whether Lopez was this good or whether it was just a case of him catching de Leon with a big shot. I think more of the latter, because de Leon was dominating the round up until the 1:30 mark, at which time Lopez landed a long left hand and immediately came behind it with a short right hook that de Leon neither never saw nor ever expected. The combination momentarily did nothing to De Leon other than snap his head back, but then after a second he dropped to the canvas in a delayed reaction.
De Leon disparately trying to buy time, made a complete circle of the ring, catching shots the whole time as he backed up continuously. He ultimately backed himself up into a corner, where he had no way of escaping and was forced to fight for his life. The taller, much more clearer headed Lopez moved in for the kill and fired off a flurry of shots, missing a lot but connecting with his last four combinations ending with a hard right hook to the head that dropped de Leon for the second time in the round.
He gamely staggered to his feet, looking in really bad shape, with a bad cut over his left eye. However, he immediately collapsed backwards and fell into the ropes, prompting for the referee Mike Ortega to rush in and grab a hold of him to prevent him from falling down. The fight was then stopped at 2:25 of the 1st round.
Like I said, I really can’t tell for sure if Lopez is all that good. He seemed to have gotten a little lucky by catching de Leon with a good shot, one that he wasn’t able to recover from. If not for that, I’m not exactly sure whether he would have had the goods to beat him. De Leon was the aggressor in the first half of the round and was landing his jab and straight left with regularity. Lopez’s power seemed to be fairly average and nothing close to the power that De Leon was throwing. I think it was just a lucky shot and I doubt he could repeat it if they were to meet again.
Afterwards, there was talk of Lopez fighting Israel Vazquez, the WBC super bantamweight champion. I don’t think that’s a very good idea. Vazquez has a decent chin and would have likely walked through the right hand that hurt De Leon, and given Lopez all kinds of problems. I doubt that Lopez could deal with the power or the pressure that Vazquez would be putting on him. For that matter, I don’t think Lopez could beat de Leon in a rematch. There’s just too much of a power gulf between the two fighters, which is why I think there needs to be an immediate rematch.
June 8th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
ask to Ponce de Leon if he punch hard and quit saying stupid excuses
June 9th, 2008 at 11:24 am
NO NEED FOR A REMATCH, WE HAVE A NEW CHAMP IN PR, A REMATCH CLAUSE WAS ASK AND PONCE DE LEON STATED NO NEED, WELL NOW GUESS WHAT, no need for a rematch
June 9th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
shows how mutch you know about boxing,it was his luckey day never agian will it if he’s so good why not a rematch by far ponce has proved himself and he will again LOPEZ is a fluke
June 10th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Manuel are u mexican? are u a serious journalist or just a disappointed fan.
June 11th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Manny u must be 101% Mexican, either that or u just filling in for a real boxinng scribe. if u know anythinabout boxing (which u dont) u would not writing what u wrote.It was not a lucky punch, de Leon is sloppy, punches wide and off balances usually placing more weight on his right foor causing him to lean to his right side(because he puts so much behind his wild left hook)Juanma sat and fired one of the hardest, quickest right hooks YOU have ever seen in your life,BAM!lights out, good night, “hey what the fuck just hit me?”Poncy,poncy,poncy, u just got KNOCKED THE FUCK OUT!ooohh it burns to loose to a rican doesnt it?i think in the Mexico vs Puerto rico matches (titles fiights) PR is up like somethin 55 to mexicos 24, im not even puerto rican, but u have to compare apples to apples, Juanma is on another level.
June 21st, 2008 at 10:13 am
this guy is preaty ignorant.ko 1st round get over it.