In this week’s three punch combo I will first examine Josesito Lopez’s gutsy performance on Saturday night against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Next I will look forward to next week’s IBF Junior Middleweight Title eliminator between Gabriel Rosado and Charles Whittaker. And finally I will look back a week to a tremendous four round bout between Edgar Valerio and Fernando Fuentes.
Josesito Lopez Gains More Respect
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez scored an impressive 5th round TKO stoppage over Josesito Lopez on Saturday night. As impressive as “Canelo” was, I gained even more respect for Lopez after this bout than his upset win over Victor Ortiz three months ago.
First of all, Lopez deserves credit for taking this fight. I understand that this was by far his biggest payday, but he easily could have passed on this opportunity. Following the Ortiz win he was a hot commodity in the sport. Certainly other more winnable fights at either Junior Welterweight or Welterweight would have been presented at some point. But Lopez choose to accept the challenge and move up to a higher weight to face a much naturally bigger fighter in “Canelo” Alvarez.
Plus, he wasn’t there for the payday, Lopez came to win. He was dropped in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds of the fight. However, each time not only did Lopez get up but he came back punching. Many fighters in his situation would have covered up and gone into pure survival mode. Lopez refused to do that and was willing to exchange with the much bigger Alvarez in hopes of landing a shot that would alter the fight.
Lopez started to have some success landing his own combinations and gave fans a glimmer of hope that he may actually be able to pull this fight out. However, in the end “Canelo” proved to be too big and too skilled and was able to force referee Joe Cortez to call a halt to the bout in the 5th round.
I would love to see Lopez return to his natural weight of 140 pounds and compete in the Junior Welterweight division. If he returns there he is definitely a top ten fighter in that weight class. And as fight fans, we could start drooling over the possibility of a match with Lucas Matthysse.
Gabriel Rosado-Charles Whittaker
Gabriel Rosado faces Charles Whittaker on Friday night in an IBF Title eliminator in the Junior Middleweight division. Each fighter has had career setbacks and each have rebounded to put themselves in a position to be potentially fighting in a World Title bout next year.
Rosado has been on s six fight winning streak since his last loss to Derek Ennis on July 30th, 2010. In his last two bouts he has impressively knocked out two perennial contenders in Jesus Soto Karass and Sechew Powell. Those wins have arguably moved Rosado into the top ten in the Junior Middleweight division.
Whittaker himself has been on a 14 fight win streak since his last loss in 2004 to Troy Rowland. However, most of those wins came against soft opposition in the Cayman Islands. His best win in this win streak was his last victory against a fighter who was well past his prime in Giorbis Barthelemy.
Though their career paths have been similar, Rosado has faced the far better opposition the last few years than Whittaker. Rosado has displayed good hand speed in his last couple bouts and that will be a big difference in the fight. Whittaker has been knocked out five times and Rosado has shown much improved punching power of late. So look for another knockout victory for Rosado, which in theory sets up what could be a very fan friendly bout against IBF Junior Middleweight Champion Cornelius “K9” Bundrage.
Four Round Fight of the Year
I have been critical in the past about Deontay Wilder’s level of opposition. A week ago he once again was given a national television fight against another soft touch. However, this time some good came out of it for fight fans. Since Wilder was able to easily dispatch his overmatched opponent a couple of swing bouts found their way onto television. And one of those bouts between Edgar Valerio and Fernando Fuentes turned out to be a sensational four round war.
Valerio and Fuentes were both young Bantamweights making their professional debut. There was not much known about either fighter and not much expectations for the scheduled four round fight. However, from the opening bell the fighters were trading punches. And it wasn’t a wild free swinging affair. They went about trading shots in a very highly skilled fashion. It reminded me of a mini Castillo-Corrales.
Each fighter would taste the canvas in the bout. Fuentes was down in round one from a well placed left hook from Valerio. In the second round, Fuentes would even the score with a beautiful left hook to the body that was immediately followed by a left hook upstairs..
The third round was a very close action packed round. In the fourth, Valerio came out strong and scored two knockdowns of Fuentes. The ref waived the fight off after the 2nd knockdown giving Valerio his first professional win.
Both Valerio and Fuentes need to be applauded for their effort in this bout. This was definitely one of the most action packed four round fights I have ever seen, and I am certain we will be seeing much more of both these men in the coming years.
