Showtime headliners Nonito Donaire and Juan Manuel Lopez both scored impressive KOs tonight (July 10), but it was Lopez who fought through an early knockdown to secure his win.
Fighting in his native Puerto Rico, Lopez made an immediate impact by staggering Bernabe Concepcion in the 1st with with a counter straight lefts. Concepcion stumbled across the ring and crashed into ropes, and Lopez stalked after him with more hooks. Concepcion tried to create space with a wide left hook only to be dropped to his knees by a compact right hook.
Concepcion made it to his feet at 6, but was still clearly dazed from the previous assault. Lopez pounced and punished him with 2 left hooks, forcing the challenger to give ground. A straight left momentarily froze Concepcion, who then stumbled back into a corner and appeared to be several seconds away from a clear stoppage loss.
A wise clinch saved him, and the Manny Pacquiao apprentice began backpedaling behind a high guard while trying to pick off the firepower coming from Juan Manuel Lopez.
But another left, this time a looping hook, cracked Concepcion behind his guard. Again he was hurt, but Concepcion rolled with the punches against the ropes before timing a hard left hook the stunned and dropped Lopez.
Lopex rose immediately, but the round ended before the damage could truly be assessed.
In the corner, JuanMa’s trainer Alex Caraballo warned him to settle down and advised the knockdown was the result of overconfidence.
The 2nd round saw Lopez capitalize on Concepcion’s zealousness. The challenger rushed in seeking to land another right hook, only to get planted on the canvas by a sharp straight left 17 seconds in. This time Lopez was patient by working behind the jab and clipping his foe with right hands. Concepcion was hurt by a right hook counter as he attempted his own. Trying in vain to stagger away, Lopez chased and dropped him with a short straight left to earn the stoppage.
The shootout featured only 1 landed jab and 38 power punches.
The win ensures that Lopez will meet Rafael Marquez on September 18 for Lopez’s WBO featherweight title. The fight is the classic “young lion vs. old lion” scenario, and represent the biggest test of Lopez’s career.
“Rafael Marquez is a great fighter, I’m looking forward to the fight,” he said in the post-fight interview.
Regarding the knockdown, Lopez detailed that is was simple carelessness.
“Sometimes you get a little overconfident even though I had the fight under control. He’s a great fighter, a strong fighter with a punch,” he said of Concepcion. “I have to learn never to be overconfident even though I knocked him out in the second round.”
Juan Manuel Lopez improved to 29-0, 26 KOs. Bernabe Concepcion falls to 28-3-1, 15 KOs.
On the undercard, Nonito Donaire worked out some early kinks with his southpaw stance experiment to score an impressive KO over Hernan Marquez.
In the early rounds Donaire went after Marquez with straight lefts. But the southpaw stance created openings for the challenger, who landed several solid right hooks. Donaire noted that Marquez was leaning in with his shots, and began to start timing left uppercuts that later proved decisive.
Donaire switched back to orthodox in round 5, and timed a beautiful left hook that dropped Marquez. The challenger was badly hurt and only survived by literally tackling the champion to the end the round.
Marquez had no answers for the quick counters Donaire was now landing from his natural orthodox stance. In the 8th, Donaire countered with a lethal left uppercut counter under a wild Marquez hook for a knockdown. The challenger was glassy-eyed as he beat the count, causing his corner to throw in the towel for the TKO stoppage.
In the post-fight interview, Donaire placed blame on Vic Darchinyan for their expected rematch not happening.
“It’s out of my hands, I’ve given him the opportunity for a rematch,” said Donaire, who improved to 24-1, 16 KOs. “I came in to sign the contract and they didn’t want to make it happen. As of now we have Fernando Montiel and other guys we can work on.”
The TKO loss brings Hernan Marquez’s record to 27-2, 20 KOs.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 
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