Angelo Leo knocks out Luis Alberto Lopez to win IBF featherweight title

Nothing could hurt him. Everything Angelo Leo threw at Luis Alberto Lopez, it seemed, the defending IBF featherweight titlist walked through.

Then, as what sometimes happens in boxing, a life-altering punch occurs. It unfolded gradually and came to a thudding conclusion square on Lopez’s chin, knocking him out cold before his head bounced off the canvas Saturday night at the Tingley Coliseum in Leo’s hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Just like that, Leo fulfilled a dream, winning the IBF featherweight title in his backyard by knocking out Lopez at 1:16 of the 10th round.

Leo (25-1, 12 knockouts) said he had been practicing that left hook everywhere he could, from the gym to when he looked himself in the mirror. Entering the fight, Lopez (30-3, 17 KOs) was The Ring’s No. 1 ranked featherweight and Leo was ranked No. 10.

Leo was ahead on two of the judge’s scorecards, 86-85, while one judge had Lopez ahead, 86-85, at the time of the stoppage.

Lopez, who lost for the first time since 2019, was making his fourth title defense, which he won in December 2022, while Leo won his fifth-straight bout since the WBO junior featherweight title defense to Stephen Fulton.

Leo felt Lopez was underestimating coming into the fight. Lopez certainly underrated Leo’s power.

He paid dearly for it later.

After a feeling-out opening round, Leo unleashed a torrent of shots in the second, starting with an overhand right to Lopez’s chin with 1:39 left in the round. Leo followed with another right, a left to the body, and another right to the side of Lopez’s head. Leo had the hometown crowd chanting his name, “Leo, Leo, Leo.”

Leo poked Lopez with a double jab in the final minute of the second, with the “Leo” chants painting the background of his charges. It was a very strong round for Leo, who landed 24 of 49 punches, including 11 body shots in the round.

Lopez tried using his awkward, wide-open style to set Leo off balance. With 1:49 left in the third, Lopez popped Leo’s head back with a right uppercut. Leo countered Lopez with a right to the face with 1:20 remaining.

As soon as the bell sounded to open the fourth, Leo pressed Lopez immediately. Lopez seemed to walk through everything Leo was throwing, standing sturdy in the pocket. With 26 seconds left in the fourth, Leo shook his head as Lopez connected on a quick combination. Leo was trying to win with volume, Lopez was trying to win with power shots.

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There were a few borderline shots in the fourth to which Lopez tried drawing to the attention of referee Ernie Sharif.

As the fifth round unfolded, Lopez stayed patiently in the pocket and tried catching Leo as he neared. Lopez’s right uppercut was particularly effective. With 25 seconds remaining in the fifth, Lopez swung a right into Leo’s head. Lopez again landed a right uppercut as the round closed.

Showing no respect for Leo’s power whatsoever, Lopez walked down the hometown challenger swinging one shot at a time. He had Leo backing up—and thinking. Leo did get one good shot in, popping Lopez’s head back with a minute left in the sixth.

Through six, Leo outlanded Lopez, 128/318 (40%) to 85/397 (21%). What punch stats do not reveal, however, is how heavy Lopez’s shots were in comparison to Leo’s.

With 2:13 left in the seventh, Lopez again tried to appeal to Sharif about low blows, when a Leo left hit Lopez on the waistline. Lopez back pedaled and simply stopped fighting. He looked over to Shafir, tapped his waistband with his right, as Leo kept punching.

Leo began showing a cut under his right eye. He did hold up well under Lopez’s power shots—and he appeared to be winning through seven.

In the first 30 seconds of the eighth, Sharif did warn Leo, “Don’t do that, keep them up.”

Leo was relying on the homerun punch. Leo kept chopping at Lopez, as Shafir was seemingly losing control of the fight. He was late in getting between the fighters to break them and was too late when he warned them.

With 1:38 left in the ninth, Lopez scored with right inside. By this time, Lopez had absolutely no respect for anything Leo tried. He walked in a straight line to the challenger, stalking Leo.

It would be a grave mistake Lopez would pay for emphatically the following round.

Between the ninth and 10th, Lopez was told by his corner, “You cannot depend on the ref, he’s on his (Leo’s) side, okay?”

Lopez was also told to create some distance, creating space to connect with the uppercuts.

Then, right after a break with 1:58 left in the 10th, Leo, from out of nowhere, unfurled a textbook left hook catching Lopez right on the chin knocking him out. The punch was blunt. Emphatic. Explosive. Leo looked down on the fallen Lopez, admiring his punishing blow as he walked away. Sharif stood over the supine Lopez counting, while ringside officials began spilling into the ring before Sharif could finish the count.

In the co-feature, between undefeated junior welterweights Lindolfo Delgado and Bryan Flores, Delgado won by 10-round split-decision scores of 95-93 and 96-92, outdistancing the one card in favor of Flores, 96-92.

Delgado (21-0, 15 KOs) won thanks to a pair of 10-8 rounds, one in the third, off the knockdown, and in the seventh, off the point deduction for Flores’ low blows.

Flores (26-1-1, 15 KOs) had outlanded Delgado, 104 to 100, although Delgado connected at a higher percentage, 100/354 (28%) to Flores’ 104/471 (22%).

In the opening rounds, Flores was the more aggressive, backing up Delgado, a 2016 Mexican Olympian. Delgado began picking up his rhythm in the third, catching Flores with a clubbing right to the side of the head sending him down with 1:59 remaining in the round. It marked the seventh time in Flores’ career that he had been knocked down.

In the opening seconds of the fourth, Flores stunned Delgado with an overhand right. The third-round knockdown seemed to wake up Flores, who resorted to coming forward as he had in the first two rounds. With :48 seconds left in the fourth, Flores plowed Delgado with a sweeping right on the back of Delgado’s left ear. Delgado could not get out of the way of Flores’ rights.

In the first minute of the sixth, Flores landed a one-two on Delgado’s head. Midway through the round, Delgado attacked the body, forcing Flores to back up.

Possibly sensing he was behind, Delgado came at Flores to start the seventh. About 40 seconds later, it was Delgado hitting Flores with lead rights, but referee Robert Velez felt Flores was throwing low blows and deducted a point with 1:46 left in the round. Delgado’s strong seventh, with the point deduction, placed him back into the fight.

With 1:23 left in the eighth, Flores plowed Delgado with a big left that smacked Delgado square in the face. Each fighter could get out of the way of each other. Flores tagged Delgado with a left uppercut in the closing minute of the ninth, which Flores countered by landing a right to the head. The fighters went at it inches apart, their foreheads seemingly seared together.

As the 10th opened, the fight could have gone either way. With 2:21 left in the fight, Flores crushed Delgado with an overhand right. With 1:23 left, Delgado popped Flores’ head back with a right uppercut. The two ended the fight like they fought the entire fight, relentlessly swinging at each other.

On the undercard, Albuquerque native Matthew Griego (15-0, 10 KOs) beat late replacement Gilberto Mendoza (23-19-4, 11 KOs) for the second time, winning an eight-round unanimous decision at flyweight. Griego defeated Mendoza by six-round unanimous decision in June 2022.

Junior middleweight Vito Mielnicki Jr. (19-1, 13 KOs) made a very impactful Top Rank debut with a second-round disqualification victory at 1:39 over Laszlo Toth (32-9-2, 20 KOs), when Toth’s corner entered the ring to stop the scheduled 10-rounder.

Featherweight Albert Gonzalez (10-0, 6 KOs) stopped Damian Alcala (8-5, 2 KOs) at 2:51 of the third round in a scheduled six-rounder.

Lightweight Alan Garcia (14-0, 11 KOs) remained undefeated by stopping Maickol Lopez Villagrana (16-6, 8 KOs) at 2:34 of the third round of a scheduled eight-rounder.

In a scheduled six-round bantamweight weight, Steven Navarro (3-0, 2 KOs) stopped Israel Camacho (2-12) with a left hook to the body at 2:14 of round one. In the opening bout of the show, featherweight Arnold Khegai (22-1-1, 14 KOs) stopped Belmar Preciado (22-8-1, 15 KOs) at the end of the ninth round of a scheduled 10-rounder.

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who has been working for Ring Magazine/RingTV.com since October 1997 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Follow @JSantoliquito

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