Almost exactly as he predicted the outcome of his title fight, W.B.O. Featherweight Champion Juan Manuel “JuanMa” Lopez, 29-0, 26 k.o.’s, t.k.o.’d his valiant opponent, from the Phillipines, Bernabe Concepcion, 30-2-1, 17 knockouts, at 2 minutes and 37 seconds of the second round, in a fight that was actually a war for as long as it lasted.
Hard hitting JuanMa Lopez after this k.o. victory, left no doubt that he indeed is the best featherweight in the world and is ready and willing and able, to prove that statement by fighting every opponent that challenges him. Lopez doesn’t really have to wait that long since after the end of the fight at the post fight ring interview he stated that he had already signed a contract to fight Rafael Marquez, in September this year in Las Vegas. “That is the mega fight I had been seeking after Concepcion”, he stated. Lopez also added, “I know you don’t look past an opponent, but, I was super confident that I would beat Concepcion.”
Wearing a pink outfit as well as pink boxing gloves in honor of Breast Cancer Research, supporting his wife Doris a breast cancer survivor, and also graciously donating a portion of his purse to this worthy cause, from the first bell, Lopez boxed cautiously using his jab and strong body punches as he had indicated to the press during his training. After a brief feeling out period by both fighters Lopez knocked Concepcion down a with a hard right hook and anticipating a fast first round knockout, Lopez rushed a surprised Concepcion and battered him with a Tsunami like volume of punches knocking him down a second time.
Desperately, Concepcion a hard puncher himself fought back trading punches with Lopez, “phone booth” style and actually managed to knock Lopez down with a left hook of his own. A surprsed and unhurt Lopez rose up immediately as the bell ended this furious exchange assuring his cornermen that he was alright and that this was just a mistake on his part.
When the bell rang for round two, Lopez very smartly returned to his intial cautious boxing style jabbing and cautiously studying Concepcion’s moves. Concepcion having knocked Lopez down and more confident now became the aggressor throwing caution to the wind and attacked Lopez. Again in a furious exchange of punches Lopez knocked Concepcion down with a strong left cross hurting him severly, and as the Referee Luis Pabon started the mandatory eight count Concepcion glassy-eyed struggled to get up on weak legs to no avail and the referee stopped the fight, at the two minute and 37 seconds of the second round.
The pro Puerto Rican fans who attended El Coliseo De Boxeo in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which included, Iron Boy, Ivan Calderon, Juan La Porte, and Felix”Tito”Trinidad, went wild seeing their home town hero from Caguas, score such a great victory over a worthy opponent such as Bernabe Concepcion, who had vowed that just like his countryman Manny Pacquiao, he would knock out Lopez and take the Featherweight title back to the Phillipines. But, that was not to be as far as Lopez was concerned.
JuanMa Lopez a stocky compact little man in the ring is a very strong hard hitting fighter reminiscent of his countryman and neighbor, Miguel Angle Cotto who had just won a 4th world title in June by knockout. From his prospectives he claims that he is willing to take on anybody in his weight class to establish his own pound for pound boxing legacy.
As for a disappointed Bernabe Concepcion it is back to the boxing drawing board to try to re-establish his boxing credibility and again try to get into title contention, and maybe a rematch with Lopez.
Another highlight of the 7 fight card, was the semi final world title defense by W.B.O. Super Flyweight Interim Champ, also from the Phillipines, Nonito Donaire, 23-1, 15 k.o.’s against Mexican, Hernan “Tyson” Marquez,25-1, 18 knockouts. This fight was also another typical “pier-six brawl”, with Hernan who was nicked-named “Tyson” by his father because he fights like Iron Mike Tyson, lived up to his name battering a surprised left-handed fighting Donaire who is right handed. At the start of 5th round, Donaire turned around to his right hand fighting stance and battered Tyson Marquez, knocking him out at 2 minutes and 59 seconds of the 8th round. A boxing war that lasted longer than the main event. The winner Donaire then indicated that this would be his last fight at 115 pounds and will now campaign as a Bantamweight-118 lb., and will challenge Champ Fernando Montiel or his arch-rival, Vic Darchynian in a rematch.
You have to give credit where credit is due and that is to Puerto Rico Boxing, and Bob Arum’s Top Rank for keeping boxing alive and maybe converting Puerto Rico into a complete boxing town, with the “little people” of boxing, like from Junior flyweight Champ, Ivan Calderon up to Manny Pacquiao, Welterweight Champ. Since unfortunately, the heavyweights are “missing without a trace”, we are delighted to be nourished with these great smaller weight fighters.
