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Juan Manuel Lopez knocked out Steven Luevano in the seventh round Saturday night, using a brutal left hook to claim the WBO title in the main event of a featherweight doubleheader.
Earlier in the night, rising star Yuriorkis Gamboa defended his WBA belt with a sensational second-round knockout of rugged challenger Rogers Mtagwa. Read on for more…
Lopez was taken the distance by Mtagwa in his last fight in October, one he was on the cusp of losing several times over the final rounds. The junior featherweight champion moved up to challenge Luevano and was simply overwhelming at 126 pounds.
He staggered the champion early in the seventh before finally trapping Luevano against the ropes, unleashing a combination capped by a flush left near the corner. Luevano staggered to his feet by the count of 10, but referee Benji Esteves wisely waved it off.
It was the first fight for Luevano since a disqualification victory against Bernabe Concepcion in August. Luevano was leading on the scorecards when the bell ended the seventh round and Concepcion didn't hear it, unintentionally blasting him with a left-right combination that sent him down and out.
Luevano (37-2-1), who defended his title five times, struggled to keep his distance against the hard-charging Lopez. He's a counter-puncher by nature and never had a chance to throw a counter, wilting under Lopez's intense pressure.
The outcome certainly delighted a reunion of great Puerto Rican fighters. Former five-time champion Felix Trinidad drew the first big roar from a crowd of more than 5,000 that packed the smaller theater at Madison Square Garden, followed by another roar for former welterweight titleholder Miguel Cotto.
Cotto, who is coming off a loss to Manny Pacquiao, was in town to work on an agreement to challenge 154-pound titleholder Yuri Foreman on June 12. Cotto would be reclaiming his annual date on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day parade in New York.
Gamboa (17-0, 15 KOs) ran roughshod through Mtagwa in an electrifying display.
The 2004 Olympic gold medalist from Cuba did damage with his first blow, a counter-punching left that stunned Mtagwa in the middle of the ring. Gamboa then knocked the granite-chinned Mtagwa down with 15 seconds left in the round, and the Tanzanian-born challenger never looked the same.
Gamboa dumped him again midway through the second round with devastating combinations, finishing the fight moments later when Mtagwa (26-14-2) was unable to get himself into a clinch to buy time.
"We knew he was fast but we felt we could handle his speed," Mtagwa's trainer Joe Parella said. "The game plan was to go three rounds, battle through it, but Mtagwa got caught early."
It's no secret that Top Rank has been trying to build toward a fight between Lopez and Gamboa, putting them on the same card for the second straight time. It would be an exciting matchup between two of the sport's rising stars, and one Gamboa said he's ready to take.
"I hope that with this performance nobody compares me to JuanMa. We're different fighters," Gamboa said through a translator. "I'd love for whoever the public or maybe the press considers the No. 1 featherweight, to have him in the ring for my next fight. That way I can show who is the best."
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