Juan Manuel Lopez stops Oliver, looks horrible

By Boxing News - 10/01/2011 - Comments

Image: Juan Manuel Lopez stops Oliver, looks horribleBy Dan Ambrose: Fighting for the first time since being wiped out by Orlando Salido last April in an 8th round TKO loss, former WBO featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez (31-1, 28 KO’s) stopped his 2nd tier tune-up opponent Mike “Machine” Oliver (25-3, 8 KO’s) in the 2nd round on Saturday night at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez, Bayamon, Puerto Rico.

Lopez, 28, knocked the 31-year-old Oliver down three times in the fight – twice in the 1st round and a final time in the 2nd from a hard right hand. After Oliver was knocked down for the third time, he got back to his feet but he didn’t look as if he wanted to continue fighting when referee Roberto Ramirez asked him if he wanted to continue. The fight was then stopped at 2:32 of the round.

This wasn’t really an impressive performance from Lopez, as he was hit a lot by Oliver in the 1st round, in particular when Oliver caught Lopez by the ropes and flurried on him with head shots. Lopez looked uncomfortable with the hand speed of Oliver, as he was hit with a lot of clean looping right hands and left hooks. The problem that Oliver had was he didn’t have the chin or the legs needed for him to withstand the occasional big shots from Lopez. In the 1st round, Lopez knocked Oliver down with a right hand to the head. And then later in the final seconds of the round, Lopez put Oliver down again with a grazing right hand. In between the knockdowns, Oliver seemed to be getting the better of the action with his higher work rate and better hand speed.

Lopez pretty much had it his own way in the 2nd round, as he attacked Oliver but didn’t land as many punches as you would have expected because of Oliver’s good head movement.

After the fight, Lopez said he wants to fight WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido again to try and recapture his title.

Overall, I think Lopez looked bad. He seemed to be heavier than his last fight against Salido, slower and not as sharp. Lopez didn’t have the look of someone that could have fought for 10 to 12 hard rounds had it gone that long. I think Lopez’s conditioning is still going to be a major problem for him in future fights that go past the 6th round, and a rematch with Salido will definitely be going past the 6th, because Lopez isn’t going to hurt Salido. Hopefully, Lopez’s promoter Bob Arum got a chance to see how vulnerable Lopez looked against Oliver and has a long talk with Lopez to steer him away from Salido. He won’t be Salido in a rematch and will just end up taking another beating.

In other action on the card:

Jonathan Oquendo KO 2 Jose Luis Araiza
vacant WBO Latino super bantamweight title