Lopez vs. Luevano this Saturday night

By Dan Ambrose: Making his 6th defense of his World Boxing Organization super featherweight title, champion Steven Luevano (37-1-1, 15 KO’s) will be taking on Juan Manuel Lopez (27-0, 24 KO’s) at the Madison Square Garden, New York, New York. Lopez, 26, will be moving up in weight in hopes of adding another title to his possession. Lopez currently holds the WBO super bantamweight crown and has successfully defended it five times since capturing it two years ago with a 1st round stoppage win over Daniel Ponce De Leon in June 2008.

Lopez was looking invincible after that fight, stopping four consecutive opponents until running into the tough Tanzanian Rogers Mtagwa, who badly hurt Lopez in the 11th round and had him nearly out on his feet in the 12th. It’s very likely that Mtagwa would have finished Lopez off had there been a 13th round because Lopez looked finished and was staggering and holding for most of the 12th.

Luckily for Lopez that referee Steve Smoger didn’t stop the fight because some referees might have pulled the plug on the fight seeing how hurt Lopez was in the fight. Lopez won’t have to worry much about the power of Luevano on Saturday night, because Luevano is more of a pure boxer than a puncher like Mtagwa. Luevano, 28, is perhaps the one that needs to worry in this fight.

He was knocked out by a late hit by his last opponent Bernabe Concepcion in August 2009. At the conclusion of the 7th round, Luevano looked to be getting ready to congratulate Conception for a good round when Conception reared back and tagged Luevano with a hard right hand a full second after the round had ended, knocking Luevano flat on the canvas where he laid for a long time.

Conception was immediately disqualified by referee Jay Nady. Although Luevano won the fight by a disqualification, you never know whether Luevano may have sustained some lasting damage in the stoppage loss. Lopez is a very tough opponent to be facing coming off a wicked knockdown like the one that Luevano suffered.

It would have been perhaps more prudent to take on a safer opponent so that Luevano can find out whether he was affected by the knockdown punch from Conception. Lopez has his own worries as well. He took some huge punches in the last three rounds by Mtagwa, and was hurt two or three times in the fight from Mtagwa’s big shots. It was a really tough fight for Lopez, who up until that time in his short five year pro career had taken very little punishment in his 26 fights.

Luevano isn’t the type of opponent that Lopez is made to order for Lopez. Luevano likes to stay on the outside using his jab and picking off his opponents with counter punches. He doesn’t get in close and make it easy for his opposition. Lopez is going to have to pressure him and try to get to the inside where he can connect with hooks. Luevano usually backs away when a fighter tries to walk him down, so Lopez is going to have to work faster to try and corner Luevano and get his punches in before he can escape laterally on him.

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