Throughout Saturday night’s IBF featherweight championship fight, a theme continuously came from ESPN’s Joe Tessitore and Chris Algieri.
Venado Lopez has a bad habit of sticking his chin in the air. It’s a no-no in boxing to expose your chin with a virtual “hit me” sign, but that’s what Lopez did in a close fight with Angelo Leo, and he paid the price.
Leo would take the IBF featherweight championship belt away from Lopez with a 10th-round knockout of the now-ex-champion.
“That left hook, we’ve been practicing in camp for four, five months. Not in the gym, but in my room in front of the mirror. I just kept throwing that left hook. And it paid off in the 10th round,” Leo said.
MTC Media had Leo up by a point at the time of the knockout.
Leo and Lopez are considered “action fighters” in different ways. Leo uses the ring more, picking and choosing when to stand and engage, while Lopez loves anchoring his fighting and moving his opponent with his thudding power punches.
Early on, Leo displayed ring generalship, using his lateral movement to get the proper angles, which allowed him to score early and often. However, there was a change in the middle rounds. Leo’s movement started to lessen, which allowed Lopez to change the fight to one that he was more comfortable with. Lopez started landing looping punches around Leo’s guard, along with his signature right uppercut.
But, in Round 7, Leo’s movement started to return, and he began to look more comfortable going into the championship rounds. Still, Lopez allowed Leo to land a crushing left hook after Lopez threw a lazy jab.
After the fight, Leo said, “I want to fight all the champions, whether it be Rafael Espinoza for a unification bout. Naoya Inoue, whoever it may be.”
(Photo Courtesy: Mikey Williams/Top Rank)
