Juan Manuel Lopez

By Manuel Perez: If you’re like most people who saw last Saturday’s bout between Juan Manuel Lopez (22-0, 20 KOs) and WBO super bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce de Leon (34-2, 30 KOs) at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, you want to see an immediate rematch. The fight, which had thought to have been a competitive one going in, turned out to be a quick 1st round blow out when the 24 year-old Lopez landed a sneaky left-right combination that Ponce de Leon never saw coming, knocking him flat.

Though Ponce de Leon made it up before the count of 10, he was in really bad shape and barely able to stand much less fight. As you would guess, Lopez jumped all over Ponce de Leon as soon as the fight resumed and blasted him around the ring with a blizzard of punches, ending when he caught him with another right hook to the head which dropped the game Ponce de Leon to the canvas. He tried his best to get up from the knockdown, but only succeeded in stumbling backwards and falling into the ropes. The thing of it was, the fight was over way too quickly for my sake and neither fighter were able to effectively prove who the better one is between them. I’m sorry, but I don’t consider Lopez as the better fighter just because he was able to score a quick knockout.

read more

By Manuel Perez: In somewhat of a surprising upset, undefeated Puerto Rican super bantamweight challenger Juan Manuel Lopez (22-0, 20 KOs) stopped WBO super bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce de Leon (34-2, 30 KOs) in the 1st round on Saturday night to take his title away from him at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. De Leon, 27, was knocked down twice in the round and received a cut above his left eye. Lopez, 24, dropped de Leon with a left-right combination on the seat of his pants.de Leon, badly hurt, attempted to get up and fell down on his first try.

When he did finally get to his feet, he was staggering badly as the referee checked him over. Seconds later after eating a flurry of shots from Lopez, De Leon went down again from another right hand. He struggled to his feet, but this time the referee Mike Ortega halted the fight at 2:25 of the 1st round. It’s hard to tell whether Lopez was this good or whether it was just a case of him catching de Leon with a big shot. I think more of the latter, because de Leon was dominating the round up until the 1:30 mark, at which time Lopez landed a long left hand and immediately came behind it with a short right hook that de Leon neither never saw nor ever expected. The combination momentarily did nothing to De Leon other than snap his head back, but then after a second he dropped to the canvas in a delayed reaction.

read more

By Scott Gilfoid: WBO super bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce de Leon (34-1, 30 KOs) will be taking on the young 24 year-old Juan Manuel Lopez (21-0, 19 KOs) on Saturday night in what may end up being the best match-up of the fight, on the same card that WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik defends his title against Gary Lockett.

Lopez, 24, an impressive fighter from Puerto Rico where he was an amateur star for the country, will be taking a big step up in terms of competition when he faces the 27 year-old Ponce de Leon on Saturday. The general consensus is that Lopez will give de Leon a good fight but will end up coming short on the final scorecards, and will lose by a unanimous decision. I’m not so certain of that, however, and see this fight as more of a pick ‘em bout, in which both fighters have an almost equal chance at winning.

read more

By Sean McDaniel: In what’s almost sure to be a bout with a great deal of sparks flying between both fighters, WBO super bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce de Leon (34-1, 30 KOs) will be defending his title against his number #1 challenger Juan Manuel Lopez in a 12-round title bout on June 7th, at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. De Leon’s opponent, the 24 year-old Lopez, a five-time National champion in Puerto Rico, and is considered by most people to be the top prospect in the super bantamweight division.

It is a bit surprising, though, that Lopez is already getting a title shot after only his third year as a professional fighter, for it would seem that as good as he is, he probably needs another year or two to mature before being put into a title fight with someone as powerful and experienced as de Leon. Lopez has good power, and fights in a very smooth, almost relaxed style. When he punches, he doesn’t seem to be throwing all that hard, that is, until you see the results of his shots, which often produce knockdowns. He does have some flaws. His speed and his power, however, aren’t on the level of a fighter like de Leon., for one thing. While Lopez has knocked out 19 of his 21 opponents, that appears to be more of a product of his soft quality of his opposition more than a result of true devastating knockout power.

read more