Juan Manuel Lopez, the next pound for pound king?
Bernebe Conception's defeat by WBO featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez certainly got tongues wagging about the Filipino’s lack of ability.
However it was also another emphatic performance from Lopez, who bar a flash knockdown put on a real display of dominance.
The little fellas in the feather and bantamweights can sometimes get overlooked for pound-for-pound respect these days. From small acorns mighty oaks do grow and boxing is littered by those who have impressed in the lighter divisions before moving up in weight class and continuing to dominate there, the latest obviously being Manny Pacquiao.
The hottest name in the featherweights right now has to be Lopez. With an undefeated record of 29 wins and 26 KO’s “Juanma” has been bubbling under for some time and is now raising the level of his opposition with every bout.
He made light work of the disappointing Conception, who came in as an underdog, but was still fancied to be a stern challenge. A sharp left hook nearly sent “The Real Deal” to the canvas under a minute into their matchup. Moments later Lopez followed up his impressive start with some well timed swings to floor his opponent and it looked like it would be a short night’s work.
From the first bell Lopez had his straights flying out with venom and they proved devastating to Conception over the course of the fight. A stiff left dropped him while the bell was still reverberating for the second, before Lopez bundled him over for the win.
The only disappointment from Juanma’s perspective was when he got knocked down with arguably Conception’s only decent punch of the whole fight. It was a clean connection, a wild and desperate shot, more a flash-knockdown than anything else, although Lopez will be glad it came so close to the bell, and disappointed he let it through.
Next up for Juanma will be Rafael Marquez, who I am sure will just be relieved he is not fighting Israel Vazquez in a fifth war. Marquez is a tough, solid fighter; like Lopez he is exciting to watch, a crowd pleaser who is happy to go toe-to-toe with an opponent and fights with tremendous heart and courage. No doubt this will be the acid test of the WBO champ's durability, heart and skill.
If Lopez comes through Marquez then it’ll be interesting to see what he can do in terms of going up in size. The former bantamweight has already jumped up a few divisions. At 5ft 7in he has a frame which could probably encompass another division, and it would be a scintillating prospect to see him face fellow undefeated Puerto Rican Roman Martinez in the super-feathers, or maybe drop back down to super-bantam to take on the great Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym.
As a fighter Lopez is a powerful puncher who has a good shot selection, and despite having fast hand speed tends to pick and choose his shots with genuine nous. He stalked Conception for a bit after wobbling his legs and took his time to drop him, and he is excellent at sensing when a fighter is ready to fall, just like he did in his brutal KO of Daniel Ponce de Leon.
Anyone that saw that de Leon matchup will testify to Lopez’s finishing and he has proved he can do it against other elite fighters like Garry Penalosa and Steven Luevano. However, journeyman Rogers Mtagwa ran him very close in a disappointing performance for Juanma, which suggested he still needs to find that consistency.
With a fizzer of a straight left, a fine uppercut and an ability never to deliver a boring fight, there is a lot to like about Lopez. At times it looked like Conception was shadow boxing, such was the quality of the Puerto Rican's head movement - if he can keep this up, work on his concentration, and maybe tighten up his defence slightly he could be set to become the next big thing in boxing.
If Lopez is crowned pound-for-pound king within the next five years it Juan be no accident.
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