Just a little over two years ago, then 27 year old JuanMa Lopez was 30-0 with a mind-numbing 27 knockouts and was the fastest rising star in boxing.
He’d knocked out Daniel Ponce De Leon (then 34-1) in the opening round, blasted Sergio Manuel Medina (then 33-1) in Round 1 as well and stopped the highly-capable Rafael Marquez (then 39-5) inside the distance.
JuanMa would win WBO world titles at super bantamweight and featherweight and the surging Puerto Rican, who was viewed as a ‘beast’ by many, was seemingly on the cusp of his first superfight – a match-up against boxing’s other rising star, the mega-skilled, super sleek Yuriorkis Gamboa.
But along the way to the JuanMa vs Gamboa superfight, Lopez ran into a massive bump in the road. His name was Orlando Salido and the cagey, ultra-rugged, tough-as-nails Mexican would hand JuanMa is first defeat, compliments of an 8th Round TKO in April 2011.
Looking to exact revenge, JuanMa rematched his foe 11 months later in a bout not unlike their first meeting.
In fact, Round 9 of Salido vs Lopez 2 was a candidate for ‘Round of the Year’ as the fighters engaged in heavy, non-stop, toe-to-toe action throughout.
But in the ensuing round, JuanMa, despite (controversially) being ahead on 2 of the 3 scorecards, failed to convince the referee he was able to continue after being floored by a hard three punch combination.
The fight was over. Now, after Mikey Garcia’s near-perfect four round annihilation of Lopez Saturday night, the Puerto Rican has critics aplenty who insist he should retire, having lost 3 of his last 6 bouts with each defeat coming via knockout.
Retire?
How quickly some forget-or dismiss-JuanMa’s accomplishments to this point. He’s lost three times to two elite fighters, one of which, Mikey Garcia, appears to be a boxing phenom and may be a top pound-for-pound fighter one day.
There’s no shame in losing to Garcia.
And keep in mind, JuanMa came to fight. After getting rattled by his opponent, JuanMa refused to go into a shell and merely “survive” as some others would have. Quite the contrary… it was JuanMa Lopez (not Garcia) who initially stepped-up the action and went for the kill in Round 4. Perhaps he’ll never be a bonafide, international celebrity like Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather nor a superstar a la Bernard Hopkins and the Klitschko brothers – But JuanMa Lopez has the potential to be a world champion again and enjoy a fair amount of success.
Crowd-Pleasing Banger JuanMa Lopez is a crowd-pleasing fighter with natural knockout power, two-fisted aggression, a solid amateur pedigree and wins over at least three champion-caliber opponents. Moreover, he’s from Puerto Rico – a land with a proud boxing legacy that, unlike the U.S., puts the Sweet Science at the pinnacle of sports and has a greater appreciation for boxing as a whole.
JuanMa Lopez is reminiscent of a featherweight version of 1990s heavyweight Tommy Morrison.
Aggressive, hard-punching brawlers who can bang and entertain the masses, win or lose, are always in high demand.
“The Duke” was an aggressive brawler with quality punching power and a suspect chin, like JuanMa Lopez. But when Morisson fought, fans knew two things a) It would be entertaining and b) someone was getting KO’d (whether Tommy or his opponent).
Tommy was far from the best heavyweight of his era, but he was Top 10 and very entertaining. Moreover, his punching power brought an element of intrigue to his bouts.
Chris John, Fekix Sturm and Many More There have been many “belt-holders” through the years who were good, quality, top-level fighters but paper champions nonetheless. However, despite never reaching boxing immortality, some went on to become national heroes, earning large sums of money and national respect while plying their trade in the process.
WBA Featherweight Champion Chris John (48-0-1, 22 KO), for example, hasn’t beaten a formidable opponent in years and is content fighting guys in Indonesia no one has ever of. Nevertheless, he was the ‘WBA Fighter of the Decade’ and was recently voted “Favourite Athlete” at the Indonesia Kids Choice Awards in his homeland.
Do you think we’ll see Chris John face Garcia, Mares or Salido? How about John vs Guillermo Rigondeaux or Nonito Donaire? They, by far, represent John’s biggest fights. But those bouts won’t happen, and while John is criticized for not fighting the best, he’s been a long-time champion and had a fine career as had Felix Sturm who also comes to mind.
While Sergio Martinez was regarded as the world’s best middleweight, it didn’t stop German fans from making a rockstar out of Sturm who built his name in the previous decade by fighting lesser opponents such as Noe Gonzalez Alcoba, Randy Griffin, Jaime Pittman and Koji Sato instead of opting to face the division’s best at the time – Jermain Taylor, Arthur Abraham, Kelly Pavlik and Sergio Martinez. If JuanMa continues to fight, don’t be surprised if he picks up a title or two in the next few years by defeating lesser-skilled opposition. Perhaps he’ll fight solely in Puerto Rico and whack every opponent who is not ranked in the top 2 or 3 in the division.
For better or worse, Chris John, Felix Sturm and probably a few more have proved a fighter can be very successful without being the best or even fighting the best.
Will JuanMa Lopez go that route?
