Ponce De Leon wants rematch against Juanma Lopez

By Boxing News - 03/19/2014 - Comments

deleon1By Dan Ambrose: Daniel Ponce De Leon (45-6, 35 KO’s) wants a rematch against Juan Manuel Lopez (34-3, 31 KO’s) because he feels his fight against Lopez last Saturday night was stopped prematurely by referee Luis Pabon at 2:44 of the 2nd round in their fight at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez, Bayamon, Puerto Rico . The fight was halted with De Leon still on his feet after having been knocked down twice in the 2nd round. Lopez threw a 10-punch flurry, but only 2 of the punches out of the flurry actually landed and neither of them were hard shots.

Pabon jumped in and halted the based on Lopez throwing a lot of shots rather than the effects of the shots. De Leon had a right to be angry about the premature stoppage, because Pabon halted the fight based on Lopez throwing air punches than on shots landed.

Earlier in the 2nd round, Lopez hit De Leon with a huge left hook that put him on the canvas. De Leon was badly hurt from the shot, and he was staggering after he got up. However, Lopez then threw a flurry of shots with almost all of the punches missing. De Leon was holding onto Lopez and he slipped and fell down. Pabon ruled that a knockdown despite the fact that Lopez didn’t land anything during the flurry.

“None of the punches landed on me when they stopped the fight,” De Leon said via esnewsreporting. “They stopped it too early. I was 100 percent in the fight. I want a rematch with Lopez. He did connect with me, but the referee stopped it too early. Let’s see what the promoters say. I would love another fight. I’ll fight Juanma as long as there’s a neutral judges and not from Puerto Rico.”

It doesn’t look like Lopez is all that interested in a third fight against De Leon, because he’s talking about wanting to fight Jorge Arce or Orlando Salido next, and possibly on the May 3rd Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Marcos Maidana fight card in Las Vegas, Nevada. That was the second time that De Leon had lost to Lopez, as he was stopped in the 1st round in their previous fight in 2008. Last Saturday, De Leon knocked Lopez down in the 2nd round. But while trying to score a knockout, De Leon got too eager and was dropped by a right hook from Lopez. From that point on, it was all Lopez until the referee stopped the fight. De Leon probably would have won the fight had he fought in a controlled manner until getting Lopez in the 2nd part of the fight, but he came too fast without respecting Lopez’s power.



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