Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa once again showed they are among the best fighters in the lighter classes.
One of these days, perhaps they’ll actually fight each other.
Both featherweights scored convincing knockouts last night at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in title bouts, the first coming from Gamboa with a second round TKO of an overmatched Rogers Mtagwa to retain his WBA crown.
Gamboa’s victory was followed by Lopez’s seventh-round TKO of WBO champ Steven Luevano.
“Hopefully, [Lopez] is my next fight, that way I can prove I’m the best in the ring,” Gamboa said.
But in the world of boxing, obviously, it’s not that easy. After the fights last night that had a sellout crowd of 5,142, Top Rank’s Bob Arum indicated that he wanted to get each fighter at least one more bout before they meet.
“There are other good featherweights out there,” Arum said. “This would be a big fight, but we can make it bigger. We have to wait for the right time.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Lopez said of his next opponent. “Whoever it is, I’ll be ready.”
Lopez (28-0, 25 knockouts) pounded Luevano (37-2-1). The end came when Lopez, who had caused Luevano’s left eye to nearly shut completely, hit the champ with a right hook followed by a left hook that sent Luevano reeling into the corner and referee Benjy Esteves stopped it 44 seconds in.
Gamboa was not tested in his victory, knocking Mtagwa down three times in all before it was ended at 2:35 of the second.
“I’m going to prepare for whatever boxer is in front of me,” said Gamboa (17-0, 15 KOs) after beating Mtagwa (25-14-2), who gave Lopez a battle when the two met in October.
No doubt most boxing fans hope that it will be Lopez sooner rather than later.
⇒ John Duddy won his second straight since suffering his first defeat last April, with a TKO of Juan Astorga 1:55 into the first.
“If I wasn’t used to getting beat, I wouldn’t be a fighter,” Duddy said after improving to 28-1, 18 KOs, while Astorga fell to 14-4-1. “You’ve got to be able to come back. Well, that’s what I’m doing. I’m back.”
