By Sam Gregory: On Saturday June 27th Top Rank Promotions presents Latin Fury 9 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. World Champion Juan Manuel Lopez, the 2008 Puerto Rican fighter of the year will make his fourth title defense against undefeated Oliver Lontchi of Montreal in a scheduled 12 round bout in the super bantamweight division.
Also on the card is world champion bantamweight Fernando Montiel who will defend his WBO title against former Olympian flyweight Eric Morel in a scheduled 12 round bout in the bantamweight division.
Undefeated southpaw Juan Manuel Lopez, 25-0 with 23 KO’s, won the WBO super bantamweight belt in June of 2008 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City when he stopped Daniel Ponce de Leon in the first round. Since winning the super bantamweight crown the former 2004 Olympian has successfully defended the title three times. The 25 year old known as ‘Juanma’, which he said is short for Juan Manuel, has won all of his world championship fights by knockout.
Lopez is a very disciplined and talented fighter that started his boxing career at the age of 10; he’s been compared in style to Puerto Rican Hall-of-Fame great Wilfredo Gomez. Lopez said a lot of people compare his style to Wilfredo Gomez because of his power which is rarely seen at his weight of 122 pounds. Of Wilfredo Gomez’ 44 wins, 42 came by way of knockout. At one point in Gomez’ career he won 32 consecutive fights by knockout. At this point in Lopez’ career 23 of his 25 wins came by way of knockout.
Lopez will be making his fourth title defense against Cameroon born undefeated Olivier Lontchi, 18-0 with 8 KO’s, Lontchi currently makes his home in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The head trainer of Lontchi, Howard Grant acknowledged at a press conference in Puerto Rico that, “We’re fighting the top gun at 122 pounds in Juan Manuel Lopez. It’s a great opportunity. Lontchi is going to put on a shocking performance.”
Lopez said that he’s excited about making his first main event performance in the United States but he said, “I really don’t know much about Lontchi, except he is highly ranked and because of that I expect a tough fight.”
Both the 25 year old fighters did their mandatory 30 day weigh-in at the press conference in Puerto Rico. Lopez weighed 134 ½ pounds, Lontchi weighed 131. The 30 day limit is 140 pounds.
Also on the card are WBO bantamweight title holder Fernando Montiel, 39-2 with 29 KO’s, who will defend his title against 1996 US Olympic team flyweight Eric Morel, 41-2 with 29 KO’s.
Montiel is the former WBO flyweight and super flyweight champion and currently the interim WBO bantamweight champion. Coming off a third round knockout over Diego Oscar Silva last March, Montiel is known for his quick reflexes, accurate punches and crisp combinations that he uses to get under the defense of his opponents.
Montiel is considered to have natural boxing instincts, a warrior’s mentality and a technically sound boxer puncher able to systematically take apart his opponents.
Montiel won his first world title at the WBO flyweight championship where be beat Isidro Garcia in December of 2000 with a seventh round stoppage. He defended the title three times until he moved up to the super flyweight division. The only two losses on his record were at the hands of Mark Johnson and Jhonny Gonzalez.
Known as “Little Hands of Steel” Eric Morel had an outstanding amateur career and was the National Golden Gloves light flyweight champion in 1994. He turned pro in 1996 and won his first 33 fights including the WBA flyweight title with a unanimous decision over Sornpichai Kratingdaenggym in 2000. He defended the title five times before he lost a unanimous decision to Lorenzo Parra in 2003.
In 2005 Morel moved up in weight and fought for the WBA super flyweight title against Martin Castillo; he lost a decision.
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