6th August, 2015: Los Angeles, CA, USA: Feather: Abraham Lopez (19-0-1) W TKO 9 Jorge Diaz (18-4-1). Super Bantam: Roy Tapia (11-0-2) W KO 3 Juan Luis Hernandez (18-6-1).
Abraham Lopez vs Jorge Diaz
Lopez gets stoppage win over useful Diaz. Diaz came out pressing the action in the first only for a right from Lopez to put him off balance and down on one knee for a flash knockdown. Lopez had the strength and was the harder puncher but Diaz boxed well finding the target regularly with his rights. However Lopez was bossing the fight and landing the harder punches and slowly draining the energy out of Diaz. Lopez landed some vicious uppercuts in the seventh and although Diaz was still finding gaps with his counters he was not able to stop Lopez walking through his jab and dominating. It was all one way in the eighth and ninth with Diaz just soaking up punishment and between the referee and Diaz’s corner they decided that it was over at the end of that ninth round. “Chamaco” Lopez, 27, now has 14 wins by KO/TKO. He has beaten Gerardo Espinoza, Gabriel Tolmajyan and Alfred Tetteh and his draw was with Juan Carlos Martinez so a reasonable level of opposition to aid his development. Diaz, 27, a former US Under-19 champion, won his first 15 fights but is 3-4-1 in his last 8 as the opposition had gotten tougher.
Roy Tapia vs. Juan Luis Hernandez
Tapia was coming off a disappointing draw but he made no mistake here. Tapia’s body punches had Hernandez struggling in the first round and Tapia continued to bombard the body in the second with Hernandez driven to his knees. Tapia was scoring with thumping hooks again in the third and Hernandez went down for a second time and the fight was over. Tapia, 23, had knocked out Mexican veteran Luis Maldonado in November but only managed a draw with Ali Gonzalez (6-5) in March. Hernandez gets his fifth loss by KO/TKO. He is now 3-3 in his last 6 fights. The wins were over low level opposition but the other losses were against much tougher foes in Genesis Servania and Joseph Diaz.
