By Eric Thomas: Josesito Lopez (30-6, 18 KO’s) isn’t too happy about his fight with Marcos Maidana (34-3, 31 KO’s) being stopped in the 6th round last night in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lopez felt like he was just buzzed a little and could have continued fighting if the referee Lou Moret hadn’t jumped in and stopped the fight.
The fight was incredibly close at the time of the stoppage. Two judges had Maidana up 48-47, 48-47, while the third had Lopez up 48-47.
Lopez said after the fight “I’m not happy with the stoppage. When I can keep fighting…there were a couple of body punches that hurt him. I never thought him landing one good combination would lead to the fight being stopped.”
It wasn’t just one good combination that Maidana landed. He knocked Lopez down with a right hand to the head in the 6th round. After Lopez got up, he was taking shot after shot and wasn’t able to throw anything back and he wasn’t doing a good job of defending himself. The smart thing for Lopez to do would have been to clinch Maidana to try and weather the storm. Lopez wasn’t fighting smart and it cost him with the referee stopping the fight. Lopez took a lot of hard shots in the previous round and you could see that Maidana hurt him.
The fight had turned around completely with Maidana dominating the action and Lopez looking a lot like he did in his fight against WBC light middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez with taking a beating. Lopez was overpowered by Maidana.
Lopez did a lot better in the 4th round when he was able to back Maidana up with a serious assault that led to Lopez hurting Maidana with a body shot. Maidana’s trainer Robert Garcia later said that Lopez had hurt Maidana with a legal punch on the hip that really bothered Maidana. He was able to recover from the shot in between rounds. Lopez blew it by not going after Maidana when he had him hurt in the 4th. Lopez said in the post-fight press conference that he should have gone after Maidana in the 4th, but he was hesitant due to his power.
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