JUANMA LOPEZ, GAMBOA WIN; BIG SHOWDOWN LOOMS
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 24 Jan 2010
Undefeated Juan Manuel “Juanma” Lopez now 28-0 with 25 knockouts scored a smashing 7th round TKO victory to win the WBO featherweight title from defending champion Steven Luevano who dropped to 37-2-1, 15 knockouts while Cuba’s undefeated 2004 Olympic gold medalist Yuriorkis Gamboa smashed rugged but wild Rogers Mtagwa in two rounds to retain his WBA title and set up a mouth-watering showdown sometime this year.
In the explosive Top Rank fight card telecast by the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN over Studio 23 and replayed at 10:45 p.m. on its pre-eminent channel 2, middleweight John Duddy of Ireland kept his first round stoppage win streak going with a TKO of clearly over-matched Mexican Juan Astorga at 1:55 of the opening round while promising Polish fighter Pawel Wolak handily won an eight round battle with Ishmail Arvin in a super welterweight bout.
The predominantly Puerto Rican crowd at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York were ecstatic over the victory of Lopez who, in his last fight against Mtagwa was on the verge of being knocked out in the final round, but hung on to win a unanimous decision.
This time Juanma made no mistakes as he bided his time against the skilled Luevano whose lack of power told in the end as Lopez took his best shots with ease and continued to press the action. As Luevano protected himself from the devastating right hook of Lopez, the popular Puerto Rican unloaded an almost equally awesome left that in the end befuddled Luevano who paid the price for attempting to slug it out with the clearly heavier puncher.
Lopez appeared to take the first two rounds behind his stinging jab and good combinations including some excellent counter punches but after catching Luevano with a solid combination in the dying seconds of round two, Lopez started to up the tempo and with short wicked shots to the body began to sap the energy of Luevano.
The champion’s left eye began to swell as Lopez continued to walk through Luevano’s punches to hammer him with vicious combinations in round six before a cracking uppercut and a flurry of punches sent Luevano crashing against the post in the neutral corner and although he beat the count it was clear he was in no position in continue and referee Benjie Estevez wisely stopped the fight at the :44 second mark.
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Gamboa whose incredible hand-speed, punching power and angles reminded fight fans so much of one-time featherweight champion and current pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao, ripped “Tiger” Mtagwa apart in two rounds to stretch his unbeaten streak to 17 wins with 15 knockouts.
The sometimes cocky Gamboa dominated from the start against the Tanzanian who is known to start slow but made the mistake of leaving himself wide open for the rapid-fire punches of the flashy Cuban.
Gamboa nailed Mtagwa from all angles and then dropped him in the final seconds of the opening round with a classic counter-hook.
Gamboa waded into Mtagwa in round two and finished him off by sending him crashing to the canvas two more times to register an impressive TKO victory wi.th referee Steve Smoger calling a halt at 2:35 of the round and hopefully setting-up a unification title fight with Lopez that is bound to be a classic.
Top photo: WBO Jr. World Featherweight Champion Juan Manuel Lopez(R),Caguas,Puerto Rico stops WBO World Featherweight Champion Steven Luevano,La Puente,Ca.in the seventh round Saturday at Madison Square Garden. -- Photo Credit: Chris Farina - Top Rank.
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