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THE SLAUGHTER OF BERNABE CONCEPCION By Manny Piñol PhilBoxing.com Mon, 12 Jul 2010  It was a tough fight, an uphill battle and a difficult mission. That was how I saw Bernabe Concepcion's encounter with Juan Manuel Lopez when it was first announced. Deep inside me though, I was expecting for an upset. They call it the puncher's chance. Concepcion is a big puncher and I thought that if he could land a big one, Lopez could land in the seat of his pants. Well, I was partly right. A wild left by Concepcion that hit Lopez in the right side of the face sent the Puerto Rican to the canvas for a mandatory eight count. What was even surprising was that the punch that knocked down the champion was actually more of a slap with an open glove that a knuckle-punch. That gave me the idea that Lopez is not that durable. He has a weak chin and he could go down if his opponent connects with a clean punch. A big puncher who could either take or avoid the champion's punches would have a big chance of winning against Lopez. But let's leave that point for another day, another column. What actually bewildered me was how Concepcion reacted to the punches of Lopez. It looked like the knockdowns were not really caused by strong punches but by very weak legs. Gerry Penalosa, who had to move up from 118 lbs. to fight Lopez at 122 lbs., absorbed stronger punches from the obviously bigger Puerto Rican champion. But Gerry took all of those and even gave Lopez a tough fight. Concepcion? He looked like a lightly mounted scarecrow who got blown away by a whiff of a punch. Or a non-punch. The first knockdown in the second round was just a grazing right to the head and he went down. The punch that ended the fight was a light left that came like a tap and Concepcion appeared like he had been hit with a bat. Prior to that, he also hit the canvas when their legs got tangled. Was Concepcion really prepared for this fight? Seeing the fight, it was obvious that the cornermen did a lousy job in their fight strategy. That's given, nobody can argue with that. There are, however, plenty of questions that must be answered by those who arranged the match and those who prepared Concepcion for this bout. Did they really believe Concepcion had a chance against Juan Manuel Lopez? Or did they simply lead Bernabe Concepcion to the slaughterhouse? Click here to view a list of other articles written by Manny Piñol.  |
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