Lopez looks impressive against Lontchi
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Juan Manuel Lopez didn't score the sensational knockout victory he had notched in his junior featherweight title victory last June and so many of his other bouts.
But what the Puerto Rican sensation did do Saturday night was grind out a dominant ninth-round TKO victory over Olivier Lontchi at Boardwalk Hall's Adrian Phillips Ballroom to retain his 122-pound title for the fourth time.
Lontchi, who had been down in the second and ninth rounds, retired on his stool after the ninth round as the result of the body shots and sore ribs.
"I knew it would be difficult because I knew he was a very awkward fighter, and he showed that," Lopez said, proudly holding his title belt over his shoulder. "I think he was not really fighting and not really boxing. He wasn't throwing punches, and I felt like he was running and I was chasing him."
Lopez, however, eventually broke Lontchi down in what was sometimes a frustrating fight to watch because Lontchi did a lot of grabbing, holding and ducking into Lopez.
It didn't frustrate Lopez, however.
"I knew my strength could eventually get to him," said Lopez, who turns 26 on Tuesday. "I knew eventually my power would slow him down."
The dominant victory -- Lopez led 89-80 on all three scorecards at the time of the stoppage -- sets him up for big business.
"I thought he fought a terrific fight against a durable guy who didn't want to lose," Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said. "He's a superstar. There is no question I'm gearing him up for superstardom."
Lopez (26-0, 24 KOs), who was headlining a card in the United States for the first time, is now on the path to an eventual showdown with interim featherweight titlist Yuriorkis Gamboa, the electrifying 2004 Cuban Olympic gold medalist Top Rank recently signed to a co-promotional deal with Arena-Box.
Lopez, a 2004 Puerto Rican Olympian, will next fight on the same card at the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York with Gamboa -- assuming Gamboa wins a July 25 defense in Mexico on Top Rank's next "Latin Fury" pay-per-view card -- in late September or October. The date had been Sept. 26, but Arum said the show probably would move to get out of the way of the rescheduled Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Juan Manuel Marquez pay-per-view card the previous Saturday.
"Juanma is very fortunate that we have Gamboa and, in a year or so, it's going to be a very big fight. It's going to be a monster fight," Arum said. "Juanma is showing he is a complete fighter. Who can stand up to him at junior featherweight or featherweight with maybe the exception of Gamboa?"
Arum said that, after the fall card, Lopez probably will go up to featherweight, where he would like to match Lopez with the winner of the Aug. 15 fight between titlist Steven Luevano and Bernabe Concepcion.
But Lopez is still at junior featherweight for the time being, and he is showing himself to be a force.
Midway through the second round, he landed a right hook that dropped Lontchi, who was very defensive against the more aggressive Lopez.
Lopez was hurting him with right hands and body punches, including a body blow that did damage in the fourth round.
"I got hit real hard in Round 4," said Lontchi, 26, a native of Cameroon living in Montreal. "He hit me really hard in the ribs. I then made a decision to start moving more. It really hurt me. He has very good combinations. He's very powerful, he hits hard and I have to give him a lot of credit."
Lopez floored Lontchi (18-1-2, 8 KOs) again in the ninth with a right hand with a little more than a minute to go in the round. But after the round, Lontchi retired on the stool.
"He asked me to stop the fight the round before because of the ribs, but I asked him to give it one more round," trainer Howard Grant said.
With Lontchi out of the way, Lopez is looking forward to going to New York for his next fight and the buildup to a Gamboa fight.
"I'm really looking forward to it," Lopez said. "If he keeps going and I keep going, it will be a great event. We can both showcase our stuff, and it will be a really big fight. I hope we both keep it going so we can make it not only a great fight but a great event."
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.
