Going into the rematch fight, we knew super-featherweights Juan Manuel Lopez and Daniel Ponce de Leon would exchange bombs in a can’t miss fight. And last night in “Juanma’s” homeland of Puerto Rico, on a card that was headlined by Danny Garcia’s controversial points win over a determined Mauricio Herrera, we saw a blisteringly exciting battle that was, unfortunately, tarnished somewhat by yet more controversy; this controversy coming by way of a premature stoppage.
Back in 2008, a new star burst onto the world stage down at super-bantamweight, as Lopez iced defending WBO boss De Leon inside a round. A lot has happened to both power punching fighters since, and last night the rematch, up at 130-pounds, was largely seen as the last roll of the dice for both men, Lopez especially. Many experts, including Lopez’ former promoter Bob Arum, openly called for Juanma’s retirement after his TKO loss to Mikey Garcia last year. De Leon, who is the older man by three years at 33, was also looked at as a fine fighter who had seen better days, yet he was deemed to have had more left than his fellow southpaw.
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