Mikey Garcia Vs Juan Manuel Lopez - Post-Fight Report

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The Fans Have Voted: Garcia Vs Lopez

The action dies down a little this week after an action-packed weekend of boxing last week, but there's still one big fight to look forward to; Mikey Garcia Vs Juan Manuel Lopez. Garcia puts his WBO featherweight title on the line against an experienced former world  champion in Lopez.

The Fans Have Voted: Broner and Ward, the future P4P kings?

By Jack Price @PriceyJ97.

The Mayweather-Pacquiao era is slowly coming to an end. There was a time when these two men were dominating the pound-for-pound debates. It was debatable between these two, but nobody else even came close. But now these two superstars are aging and clearly slowing down, the pound-for-pound No.1 spot will soon be left wide open for the young, hungry up and coming superstars making their way through the rankings right now.

It's impossible to predict the future, especially in boxing, but we wanted to find out who the fans believe is the "most likely" to be in the P4P No.1 spot in a few years time. So we asked the following question to our Twitter followers (@BoxingOpinions1): Who will be the pound-for-pound king in 5 years time?

There were tons of names mentioned, way more than I actually expected, but two names dominated the discussion: WBC super-bantamweight super-middleweight champion and most people's P4P No.2 Andre Ward, and flamboyant and controversial highly-rated WBC lightweight world champ Adrien 'The Problem' Broner. Let's take a look at why most boxing fans/experts believe it will be these two men battling it out for the No.1 spot in the future.

Abner Mares vacates title and steps up to featherweight!

By Jack Price @PriceyJ97. 

Has Abner made the right decision?

I have to be honest, I was slightly disappointed when I saw someone share this news on Twitter. Mainly because it means that another super-fight is going to be passed by in Nonito Donaire Vs Abner Mares, but also because I do genuinely believe it is too early for Mares.

If you haven't heard already, highly-rated Mexican Abner Mares has chose to vacate his WBC super-bantamweight world title and is stepping up in weight to fight at featherweight. Mares has stated on many occasions that he was only sticking around at 122lb if a fight with the division's No.1 and pound-for-pound contender Nonito Donaire was made. And with Donaire Vs Rigondeaux looking likely for April, I guess he just got fed up of waiting and decided to finally take the step up. I say "finally" but I do think this is way too early for 'Lil Abner.'

With only two fights at super-bantamweight against extremely talented, but smaller guys (Anselmo Moreno and Eric Morel), there's still a lot for him to do at the weight. A fight with either Rigondeaux or Donaire would have came at one point and there's other fighters there that may not be as talented, but still have big names. Fights with Wilfredo Vazquez Jr, Scott Quigg, Carl Frampton and even Leo Santa Cruz would all have been mouth-watering match-ups and big paydays for the 27-year old.

The other problem is his size. At only 5"4 he is going to find himself coming up against a lot taller and physically bigger guys. I know he's got a lot of strength but does he have enough to out-muscle and grind out victories against top-class featherweights such as Mikey Garcia, Chris John and Daniel Ponce De Leon? That's a question that currently has no answer, but I'm sure it will do soon. Because we know with a guy like Abner Mares he will be straight in there with the elite guys in the division and looking to win even more titles.

Is this a wise move from the young superstar or is it a risk that just isn't worth taking at this current time? Can the two-weight world champion make it three out of three weight divisions at featherweight?

Garcia dominates in bizarre circumstances!

By Jack price @PriceyJ97. 

I think it's fair to say that nobody was expecting what happened in the ring between Orlando Salido and Mikey Garcia at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas last night (January 19th). We were all expecting a close competitive fight between two evenly-matched boxers, but what we got was a one-sided victory from the man that had never really been tested. That's right, 25-year old Mikey Garcia dominated and out-classed ring veteran Orlando Salido to win the WBA featherweight championship of the world.

Right from the off it was clear that Garcia meant business. Salido found himself down twice in the first round. They weren't damaging shots coming from Garcia, but they were fast, sharp and they were definitely troubling Salido. This trend continued for the next few rounds with Salido going down twice more and never really getting into the fight. The 32-year old grew more and more frustrated as he found himself in a position he had never been in before. Salido has been hurt, troubled and beaten on many occasions but he's never had it where he just can't get to a guy. Every time he put the pressure on he was either spun or just made to miss.

Unfortunately the fight ended in chaotic circumstances at the end of the 8th round after an accidental headbutt from Salido broke Garcia's nose. Thankfully, and rightfully, the fight went to the judges scorecards and Garcia was announced as the winner. 

Lopez Apologises To Referee

Juan Manuel Lopez suffered his second loss of his career on Saturday night to the same man who handed him his first defeat, Orlando Salido. The two battled out it out in a toe-to-toe slug-fest for 10 rounds until the referee Roberto Ramirez Sr. ended the bout by awarding a TKO win to Salido.

The fight is currently the leading candidate for fight of the year as both fighters gave it their all and had everyone in the crowd on their feet for most of the fight. Lopez was happy with his own performance and credited Salido for being a tough fighter but he stated that he was very disappointed with the referee who he claimed suffers a very bad gambling problem.

''The referee stopped the fight because he has gambling problems'' said Lopez to Showtime's Jim Gray. ''I told the Commission the referee was a gambler, and they did wrong as putting him as the referee. It was very irresponsible for putting him as the referee knowing he has a gambling problem.''

Lopez quickly and publicly apologised for saying what he did.

Roberto Ramirez Sr.

''For my part, I apologise to Roberto for comments I had made after the fight with Salido... Roberto is one of the best referees in the world. He did a great job and I appreciate that I was protected because I was definitely hurt!'' Lopez announced in a statement by PR Best Boxing Promotions.

Orlamdo Salido was very happy with his win and said that he knew he had to win by knockout or beat Lopez decisively to win in Lopez's hometown Puerto Rico and the judges scorecards proved him right. When the fight ended, Michael Pernick and Cesar Ramos had Lopez ahead by 86-84 and Danny Nelson had it level at 85-85 even though Salido landed 235 punches compared to Lopez who landed 135. Salido now has a record of (38-11-2, 26 KOs).

It looks unlikely the two fighters will meet for a third time although both said they are willing to as Salido is looking to face Mikey Garcia who recently stopped Bernabe Concepcion in the seventh round.

Mikey Garcia on Lopez victory, being ill, and what's next!

EsNewsReporting.com

Robert Garcia on Mikey Garcia's next fight

EsNewsReporting.com