(Photo credit: WBC Boxing) By Dan Ambrose: In an exciting battle between southpaws, 34-year-old WBC junior flyweight champion Ganigan Lopez (27-6, 17 KOs) out-boxed #1 WBC Jonathan Taconing (22-2-1, 18 KOs) in defeating him by a 12 round unanimous decision in a grueling fight last Saturday night at the Arena Coliseo in Mexico City. The final judges’ scores were 115-112, 118-109, and 119-108.
I had the fight scored 115-112 for Lopez. He didn’t impress me at all, but he did just enough to get the victory. I think he’s a mediocre champion. I rate the other junior flyweight champions Donnie Nietes, Ryoochi Taguchi and Akira Taegashi as much better fighters than Ganigan Lopez.
I see the Mexican fighter as the weak link among the four champions. It’s too bad the division has four champions instead of just one, because it’s too water down right now. I think Nietes is the best fighter in the division by far. Lopez is No.4, but light years away from the kind of talent that Nietes has going for him.
The 29-year-old Taconing, who comes from the Philippines, lost a point in the 8th round for a head-butt. Lopez was cut over his left eye. The cut didn’t prevent the southpaw Lopez from controlling the championship rounds with his size and boxing ability.
Lopez, 5’5”, looked like the much bigger guy inside the ring compared to the smaller looking 5’2” Taconing. Lopez was able to use his longer reach and jab to control the shorter Taconing through much of the fight.
Taconing was constantly putting pressure on Lopez, but he had problems connecting with his shots. Taconing was throwing wild shots and getting countered by stuff jabs and left hands from Lopez. When Taconing would land, he looked good because he had the better power in both hands. Never the less, Taconing missed far too frequently for his own good.
Taconing did his best work in rounds one through six, as he pressured Lopez nonstop and threw far more punches than him. Taconing was throwing so many shots that it kept Lopez from getting his own punches off. I had Taconing winning rounds three of the first six rounds with his pressure. Lopez appeared to do just enough to win rounds 2, 4 and 5.
If Taconing had been a little more accurate in the fight, I think he would have won, because he had the better power and he was making the fight. Lopez was constantly backing up and trying to avoid getting hit. The body language between the two fighters was pretty dramatic.
Lopez was on the defensive the entire fight, as if he was just trying to keep the Filipino fighter off him. For his part, Taconing was on the attack mode looking to get his pound of flesh with each shot he threw in the fight. If I were to have judged the fight as one of the three judges, I would have been more impressed with Taconing than Lopez. There wasn’t anything special about Lopez.
In rounds eight through twelve, Lopez used his jab and left hand to control Taconing from the outside. Lopez was constantly backing up, throwing lefts, and backing up more. This constant retreating around the ring made dull to watch times.
In the 12th, Lopez spent much of the ring circling quickly to stall out the round without throwing punches. He clearly knew he was ahead on the scorecards, so he just played keep away. It was very boring to watch.
The crowd in Mexico City was firmly on the side Lopez, which isn’t surprising because he was the home fighter. However, I think it hurt Taconing because the Mexican crowed cheered every punch Lopez threw and the cheering made it seem like he was doing better than he actually was. The crowd would cheer simple jabs from Lopez while staying quiet when Taconing would land tremendous head shots.
As a judge, I think it would have been hard for them to ignore all the cheering for Lopez. I was able to shut out the crowd and just look at what the two fighters were doing inside the ring. I thought Lopez was just a tiny bit better than Taconing, but certainly not as good as the lopsided scores handed down by the threw judges
In other boxing results on the Lopez-Taconing card, former WBC junior flyweight champion Pedro Guevara (28-2-1, 17 KOs) defeated Ruben Montoya (14-4-1, 9 KOs) by an 8th round technical decision. The final judges’ scores were 78-72, 79-75, and 80-74. The bout ended because of a head-butt