Lopez retains featherweight title with TKO victory over Marquez
Photo of the week: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is flanked by boxer Manny Pacquiao (left) and promoter Bob Arum (right) at a get-out-the-vote rally on October 29, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Reid, who was seeking his fifth term, was four points behind Republican challenger Sharron Angle. With Pacquiao’s last minute assist Reid was able to pull out the victory. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)
Saturday, after Rafael Marquez was unable to answer the bell for round nine, Juan Manuel Lopez (30-0-0, 27 KO’s) of Caguas, Puerto Rico was declared the victor in the second defense of his WBO World Featherweight Title.
At the time, Marquez (39-6-0, 35 KOs), of Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico, was behind on all three of the judges scorecards in a bout that was scheduled to go 12 rounds.
Not to make any excuses, but Marquez, who had to postpone this bout once, because of the problem with his right shoulder, took this bout even though his shoulder had not healed completely.
In the third round, he re-injured that same shoulder after a strong flurry by Lopez. Assuming the shoulder problem would only get worse, Marquez put up a strong front in the fourth round and gave it his best shot. During that climatic fourth, Lopez not only weathered the onslaught he wisely held and hit Marquez behind the head.
From that point on, Lopez was the aggressor. He was especially dominant in the seventh round, when Marquez was unable to return any of his big power punches.
At the close of eighth round, Lopez had backed his opponent into a corner and was firing away. On his stool between rounds, Marquez and his corner finally decided it was time to give up the fight and return another day.
Later, Marquez answered the question everyone wanted asked. “[I told Referee Weeks] I can’t go, I just can’t go. If I hadn’t hurt my shoulder, it would have been an all-time great fight. I’d like a rematch.”
Likewise, Lopez gave Marquez high praise, “He’s the best fighter I ever fought. If I’m No. 1, he’s No. 2. He was hurting me. We’re sportsmen. I didn’t want to hurt him more than necessary. The last couple of rounds, I thought I was hurting him. That’s why I asked the referee to stop the fight. I didn’t want anybody to get hurt. It’s the toughest fight you’ll ever see in this division. Every time he hit me he was strong as an ox.”
Older Glen Johnson photo was retrieved from the archives. Now it's on to Showtime's Super Six Tournament.
In the co-main event, the venerable Glen Johnson (51-14-2, 35 KO’s) of Miami, Florida via Clarendon, Jamaica, now 41 years old, knocked out Allan Green (29-3-0, 20 KO’s) at 36 seconds into the eighth round of their super middleweight bout.
Johnson landed a hard left to the body followed by an overhand right to his opponent’s head. Green did get back to his feet but the referee could plainly see it was all over. With the victory, the former light heavyweight champ advances to the semifinal round of the round-robin Super Six World Boxing tournament.
On the rest of the undercard, flyweight McWilliams Arroyo TKO’d Cesar Grajeda at 2:55 of the first round; Featherweight Jesse Magdaleno stopped Matthew Salazar at 1:36 of the first round; lightweight Daniel “the Prophet” Attah from Nigeria KO’d Tijuana’s Marvin Quintero at 1:55 of the second round;
Marvin "Cachorro" Quintero (20-3-0, 16 KO's) of Tijuana, Mexico, faces defeat for the third time. Photo credit: Jim Wyatt
welterweight Anthony Lenk won by unanimous decision over Danny Escobar; lightweight Mickey Bey was victorious by unanimous decision over Erick Cruz; and finally super featherweight Diego Magdaleno stopped Derrick Campos at 1:15 of the fourth round.
