Making his 5th defense of his World Boxing Organization super bantamweight title, unbeaten champion Juan Manuel Lopez (27-0, 24 KO’s) defeated his number #15 ranked WBO challenger Rogers Mtagwa (26-13-2, 18 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision.
Juan Manuel Lopez
Caballero wants Lopez; Chagaev, Andrade-Rigondeaux – News
By Dave Lahr: IBF/WBA super bantamweight champion Celestino Caballero (33-2, 23 KO’s) is eager to get a fight with World Boxing Organization super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez, who Caballero has unsuccessfully been chasing for the past year trying to get a fight with him. Caballero had this to say about Lopez: “Juanma Lopez can keep running from me, but I’m not going to stop chasing him.”
Lopez Easily Defeats Lontchi
By Jason Kim: In pretty much the only bright spot on a disappointing card on Saturday night, World Boxing Organization super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez (26-0, 24 KO’s) dominated Canadian based challenger Oliver Lontchi (18-1-2, 8 KO‘s), beating him by a 9th round stoppage at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, new Jersey. Lopez, 25, dropped Lontchi, 26, twice in the fight, once in the second round and a final time in the 9th round.
Lopez-Lontchi, Ortiz-Maidana this Saturday – News
By Sean McDaniel: WBO super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez (25-0, 23 KO’s) will be facing undefeated challenger Olivier Lontchi (18-0-1, 8 KO’s) in a 12-round bout at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Incredibly, the bout will be a pay-per-view fight which was past on by both Showtime and HBO cable networks, who probably saw the fight as a one-sided mismatch and decided to pass on it because of that.
Latin Fury 9: Lopez-Lontchi, Montiel-Morel On June 27th
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.
Lopez Stops Penalosa
By Manuel Perez: Freddie Roach struck out tonight, getting a taste of defeat for one of his fighters when former World Boxing Organization super bantamweight champion Gerry Penalosa (54-7-2, 36 KOs) was destroyed by unbeaten WBO super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez (25-0, 23 KOs) in a 9th round stoppage at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez, in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
The Fighters That Have To Step It Up This Year
By Adam Lialo: Stepping up from safe and mediocre territory into a world class zone is a massive gap to bridge. But it’s also a very fine line between the two. Fighters on the outskirts of the top level, through choice, poor management or lack of pulling power or in some cases all three, have to make the decision whether they’re happy with what they’ve achieved or have the hunger and drive to be greater. These are the five fighters that should be believing that this is their year.
Jacobs Smashes Lares; Lopez Stops Medina
By Jim Dower: In an impressive display of power punching, undefeated super middleweight prospect Daniel Jacobs (13-0, 12 KOs) destroyed Victor Lares (14-4, 3 KOs) in the second round of a scheduled eight-round bout at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jacobs, 21, an amateur star and possibly a future champion in the super middleweight or middleweight divisions, was too much for an out-gunned Lares, knocking him down with a right hand in the second round. Lares quickly got to his feet but Jay Nady stopped the fight anyway at 2:44 of the round because Lares looked too hurt to continue fighting.
Jacobs, Ortiz and Lopez on Pacquiao-De La Hoya Undercard
By Jim Dower: Perhaps the best fighter on the Manny Pacquiao vs. Oscar De La Hoya tonight won’t be either of those two fighters but rather a still largely unknown super middleweight by the name of Daniel Jacobs (12-0, 11 KOs), who has knocked out eleven of his twelve opponents, with eight of them coming in the first round. Although some would point to his soft opposition and say that anyone would with a shred of talent would be able to do the same thing as Jacobs has accomplished.
Juan Manuel “Juanma” Lopez Destroys Cesar Figueroa
By Manuel Perez: In the second consecutive fight in which Juan Manuel Lopez (23-0, 21 KOs) has scored a first round TKO victory, he destroyed Cesar Figueroa (30-7-2, 22 KOs) seconds into the fight on Saturday night, hitting him with a single left hand and dropping him to the canvas where the referee Roberto Ramirez stopped the fight at 0:47 of the 1st round as Figueroa was in no kind of condition to get up from the knockdown. Figueroa, 30, got to his knees and looked ready to get up and possibly beat the count, but after looking to be getting up, he stopped and looked down and let the referee count him out of the fight.
The punch that Lopez, 25, nailed him – a straight left hand – didn’t seem like all that big of a punch from the looks of it. In fact, if you dig a little deeper in Figueroa’s record, you’ll notice that he has been stopped early on in five of his last eleven bouts, so let’s not get things twisted around and start crowning Lopez as the next knockout king because he it looked more like a good jab than a real power punch. I doubt that any top 15 fighter would have had any problems taking the shot that Figueroa got hit with, and while we’re at it, probably most B and C class fighters would have taken the shot without any problems.