By Sam Gregory: In the main event of the November 6th edition of Showtime championship boxing from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas undefeated southpaw Juan Manuel Lopez 29-0 with 26 KO’s defends his World Boxing Organization (WBO) featherweight title against Rafael Marquez 39-5 with 35 KO’s in a scheduled 12 round bout in the featherweight division.

From the opening bell Lopez came out as the aggressor landing solid right hooks; Marquez matched his opponents output of punches but Lopez landed the more accurate shots. Marquez had plenty of sting on his punches as evidenced by the early bruising on Lopez’ face and upper body.

By the third round Lopez began doubling up on his left hooks; Marquez countered off the champs hooks and caught the Puerto Rican with a straight left that knocked him off balance and almost off his feet.

Round 4 was clearly Marquez’ best round so far; Lopez was caught with hard solid shots to the head and body from the Mexican. Out of desperation Lopez let his hands go hoping for the best , unfortunately most of his punches landed on the back of Marquez’ head that left referee Tony Weeks no choice but to deduct a point. With Marquez already winning the round he was awarded a 10-8 round.

In round five both men exchanged left hooks. Marquez doubled up his combinations while Lopez countered off the Mexicans combo’s. Lopez let his hands go during the last 30 seconds of the round; most of those punches were hard and accurate adding to Lopez’ mounting points.

Even after the points deduction the unofficial scorecards had the fight even at the end of 5 rounds

In round 6 Lopez scored big with his straight left hand shots, Marquez was smothered by the southpaws combinations which ended by being a big round for Lopez.

The unofficial scorecards began to favor the champ

In the 7th round Lopez aggressively pushed Marquez backward across the ring until the Mexican found himself with his back against the ropes. Marquez continued throwing his best shots; midway thru the round there was a furious exchange of punches against the ropes. Lopez gave the challenger a massive beating not letting up until the closing bell.

In round 8 Lopez landed a vicious head shot; Marquez dug to the body of his rival. Hard solid hooks from Lopez landed with accuracy that left the Mexican challenger wobbly and unsteady on his feet. All of Lopez’ punches were thrown with knockout power but as battered and beaten as hue was Marquez refused to go down.

Marquez was always one counter punch away from turning the fight around

Marquez unable to answer the bell for round 9 with an injured right shoulder; at the time of the stoppage Lopez was ahead on all cards by significant amount

Juan Manuel Lopez was declared the winner by way of TKO

Lopez improved his unbeaten streak to 30-0 with 27 knockouts.

Rafael Marquez fell to 39-6 with 35 KO’s.