Lopez Stops Andrade; De Jesus TKOs Navarrete

By Boxing News - 08/11/2008 - Comments

andrade643454.jpgBy Manuel Perez: Using a body attack which unfortunately consisted of a high number of punches that strayed below the belt, super flyweight Jose Lopez (37-7-2, 31 KOs) stopped Oscar Andrade (36-34-2, 18 KOs) in the 7th round of a scheduled 10-round bout at Coliseo Antonio R. Barcelo, in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. Lopez, 36, put Andrade down three times, once in the 6th and twice in the 7th, seemingly all with low blows. The referee, perhaps, was shielded from all of the blows, for he seemed to miss each one, and counted them as knockdowns.

Lopez also dropped Andrade, 33, with a nice low blow in the 5th round, although this time the referee got it right and scored it as a low blow. Lopez had been working the midsection of Andrade for most of the fight, but it wasn’t until the 5th round when he suddenly began straying low with great regularity and force. The second low blow in the 6th, from a big left hook, did a lot of damage to Andrade, who stayed down for a considerable amount of time trying to recover from the shot. In the 7th round, Lopez wasted no time and landed another combination both of which landed low, sending Andrade down again. At this point a point was deducted from Lopez.

However, later on in the round, Lopez knocked Andrade two twice more with low blows, the first from a right hand and the final from a left hook, both clearly low. Neither were called by the referee, and both did a lot of damage to Andrade. After getting up, Andrade could barely stand and the fight was called off at that point.

In other action, undefeated light welterweight prospect Alex de Jesus (18-0, 12 KOs) stopped Mexican Adrian Navarrete (17-6-1, 13 KOs) in the 12th round. de Jesus, 25, a former 2004 Olympian for Puerto Rico, unleashed a flurry of shots in the 12th round, stunning Navarrete and causing the referee Luis Pabon to step in and halt the fight at 1:23 of the round. Navarrete, 30, didn’t appear all that hurt, mostly tired. For most of the fight, de Jesus fought on the outside, punching rarely, backing up constantly and circling the ring.

Navarrete applied constant pressure, landing well to the body in most of the rounds. However, his pressure was often ineffective as he would miss or get hit by de Jesus on the way in. Ranked #7 in the WBO, de Jesus was far from impressive, however, keeping his right hand low for most of the right, looking more than a little lazy, not having much power in his shots and winning most of the rounds by a close margin.

This is an opponent that de Jesus should – if he’s to be considered for a future title shot – have easily defeated, yet Navarrete fought competitively until the very end of the fight. As it is, de Jesus looked only slightly better than Navarrete and certainly not nearly good enough to compete for a title someday. At this point, he would get destroyed by all of the current light welterweight champions, including the weak-punching Paulie Malignaggi. I see de Jesus as a bottom dweller, who will stick around for a little while until stepping it up and getting defeated once or twice, and then fall out of the top 15.