Home Depot Center, Carson, California– In a Showtime-televised candidate for Fight of the Year, Marcos Maidana (34-3, 31 KOs) stopped Josesito Lopez (30-6, 18 KOs) in the sixth round after heated back and forth action throughout the contest.
In the beginning, it was obvious that Lopez was trying to box a bit more than usual and he did a decent enough job against the brawling Maidana.
Eventually, though, Lopez opened up and began to fight with Maidana. In doing so, Lopez also created an opportunity for the heavy-handed Maidana to get back in the contest.
In the sixth round, Maidana landed a hard right hand that would send Lopez to the canvas. Despite beating the count, Lopez was still clearly hurt and, much to Lopez’s dismay, enough to have the ref stop the contest seconds later under the weight of a Maidana offensive surge.
In the televised co-feature, Erislandy Lara (18-1-2, 12 KOs) would stop Alfredo Angulo (22-3, 18 KOs) in the tenth round of a bout where he had been knocked down twice and in which the Cuban seemed to be running out of steam.
Expected to be a boxer vs. brawler showcase, the bout played out as anticipated with Lara boxing well from the outside, but absorbing punishment on the inside against the hard-charging Mexican.
In the fourth round, with Lara seemingly in control, a left hook on the inside from Angulo would send Lara to the canvas for the first time in his professional career. Lara, despite being legitimately hurt, beat the count and used his boxing acumen to stay out of trouble and actually win the next several rounds.
Angulo, however, would keep pushing forward, slowing Lara down with a punishing body attack and knocking him down for the second time with another left hook in the ninth round.
Again, Lara would beat the count, but this time didn’t seem in good condition. Slowed down from the body shots and buzzed from the latest knockdown, Lara appeared to be on the verge of sustaining some serious damage in the following round.
Instead, it would be Lara closing the show in spectacular fashion with a brutal combination to Angulo’s left eye that produced a grotesque swelling and convinced Angulo to turn his back on the action and concede defeat.
Following the bout, Angulo was rushed to the hospital to treat a possibly fractured orbital bone around the left eye.
In the Showtime televised opener, junior middleweight prospect Jermell Charlo (21-0, 10 KOs) scored a unanimous twelve round decision over Demetrius Hopkins (33-3, 13 KOs) by three scores of 115-113.
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