By Jim Dower: Former IBF/WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) saved his career on Friday night in stopping Josesito Lopez (33-7, 19 KOs) in stopping him in the 6th round on Spike TV at the Citizens Business Bank Arena, in Ontario, California, USA.
Trailing in the fight, Berto scored two knockdowns in the 6th. The referee Raul Cantu Jr. halted the fight after the second knockdown without giving a count. The fight stoppage was at 1:02 of the round. The crowd hated the stoppage and booed loudly. They wanted to see Lopez given a count at least, but Cantu opted to stop it anyway.
In fairness to Lopez, he didn’t look that hurt and he probably could have continued fight if he’d been given a chance. He needed a chance to clinch, but the referee stopped it without giving him that chance.
Berto hurt Lopez initially with a right hand to the back of the head while Lopez was partially leaning forward in the 6th. Berto then nailed Lopez with another right hand behind the head and then dropped him with another right. Lopez was badly hurt from those rabbit punches. He stayd down until the count of 7 before he got back to his feet.
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A badly out of shape 262 pound #14 WBC fringe contender Chris Arreola (36-4, 31 KOs) had to battle hard to defeat a 265 pound Curtis Harper (12-4, 8 KOs) by an eight round unanimous decision.
The final judges’ scores were 77-74, 78-73 and 76-75. The more accurate score was the 76-75 score in favor of Arreola. The other two judges appear to have been watching another fight entirely, because there’s no way Arreola won the fight by that wide of scores. Arreola knocked Harper down in the 1st round.
Both fighters were way out of shape and looked poor. Harper took over the fight in the 3rd round and was dominating until Arreola rallied in the 7th and 8th rounds to get the win. You can make an argument that the fight could have been scored as a draw, because neither guy established that they’re better than the other.
Arreola suffered a swollen nose from all the shots he ate in the fight. As bad as Arreola looked in this fight, it’s hard to see him going anywhere in the heavyweight. Even if he lost 30 pounds, he just looks like a shell of the guy he was five years ago. Arreola was fortunate that he wasn’t matched against a decent contender, because he would have lost tonight. He was in there with a 2nd tier fighter, and yet he really struggled badly to win this fight.
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Former IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter (25-1-1, 16 KOs) defeated replacement fighter light welterweight Erick Bone (16-2, 8 KOs) by a 5th round stoppage.
Porter dropped Bone twice in the round. Porter finished Bone with a left hook to the head. The fight was then halted by referee Jack Reiss at 2:30 of the round.
Porter had the size, power, and talent advantage over Bone, who was brought in to replace Roberto Garcia.
What was surprising about this fight was how much Porter struggled against Bone. This should have been an easy fight for Porter, but he was pretty wild and sloppy in there and that made it easy for Bone to find spots to land his shots.
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