By Jim Dower: According to Dan Rafael, Juan Manuel Lopez’s 1-year suspension handed down today by the Puerto Rican Boxing Commission likely will be honored throughout the United States, meaning that the 28-year-old Lopez won’t be able to escape the suspension if he were to move from his home country Peurto Rico and fight in the United States.

This is bad news if it turns out to be the case, because Lopez could lose an entire year of his career for criticizing referee Robert Ramirez after Lopez’s last fight against Orlando Salido. Lopez was stopped in the 10th round after getting knocked to the canvas by Salido. Lopez staggered back to his feet from the knockdown and shortly after that he was interviewed. During the interview, Lopez criticized the referee Ramirez, saying that he didn’t want him to work the fight and said he had a gambling problem.

The remarks led to an instant response from the Puerto Rican Commission days later. Lopez apologized shortly after in a written statement and publicly but it still wasn’t enough to keep him from receiving a one year suspension, 100 hours of community service and a $10,000 fine. Lopez has 20 days to appeal the decision but who knows what will happen on the appeal. It could be rejected and Lopez stuck with the one-year suspension.

What’s bad about this is Lopez was clearly hurt from eating countless power shots from Salido in the fight. He’s keyed up, very upset, and badly hurt at the time he’s interviewed. When someone has been badly hurt from being concussed, you can’t expect them to be thinking clearly about things they’re saying at the time. It’s best not to even stick a microphone in the face of someone that just took a beating.

It reminded me the last time that Diego Corrales fought when he moved up in weight and fought a bigger, stronger Joshua Clottey. Corrales took a tremendous amount of punishment in the fight and lost a decision. His face was badly marked up he looked beaten up. He was immediately interviewed by a female reporter from Showtime, and you could see him trying the best he could to compose himself after having taken a lot of head shots.