A bad day for Juan Manuel Lopez

Rafael's remarks: It was going to happen eventually and now it has -- we have our first legitimate fight of the year candidate after Salido and Lopez engaged in a thrilling rematch of their fight from last April, which was also a barn burner. In that fight, Mexico's Salido went to Puerto Rico and stopped Lopez in front of his home crowd in the tenth round of a tremendous fight to win a featherweight title in a huge upset.

Salido, 31, returned to Mexico in July to make a hometown title defense and then nearly got knocked out in a December nontitle fight that was supposed to be a tuneup for the rematch with Lopez, 28, who looked very ordinary in a second-round knockout of Mike Oliver in October in his tuneup for the rematch. As good as the first fight was, the rematch on Saturday was that much better, an outright brawl that will go down in history as one of the most exciting title fights in the storied Mexico-versus-Puerto Rico rivalry. With a passionate and raucous crowd behind him again, Lopez was seeking revenge but instead suffered a rough knockout in another punishing fight. The first round was a typical feeling-out round, but then things got heated. Salido began to get to Lopez with his left uppercut in fourth round. In the fifth round, Salido was hammering Lopez. He landed some booming left hands and seemed to have Lopez in trouble when, out of nowhere, Lopez, a southpaw, landed a cracking right hook that dropped Salido to a knee seconds before the end of the round, sending the crowd (including Lopez's pal and Puerto Rican icon Felix "Tito" Trinidad) into a frenzy. It was a wild scene that only got more intense over the next few rounds.

The eighth round featured relentless back and forth action that looked like a clear candidate for round of the year. That is, of course, until the absolutely sensational ninth round. They fought toe-to-toe, ripping each other with clean shots, for virtually the entire round. It was a special round. Salido's eyes were swelling and Lopez's face did not look much better when they got to 10th round, but Lopez -- whose typically horrible defense has actually regressed -- was fading, still seemingly dazed from the ferocious assault he took in the ninth round. Salido nailed him with a right hand that stopped Lopez in his tracks and followed with a left uppercut and a right uppercut and a finishing left hook that dropped Lopez on his back. It was a nasty, nasty combination. Lopez struggled to his feet, but he was wobbly and in bad shape, and had a vacant look in his eyes, forcing referee Roberto Ramirez Sr. to call it off 32 seconds into the round.

It was a glorious victory for Salido, whose 11-loss record is deceiving. Since 2001, he has lost only three times, all decisions in world title bouts to Yuriorkis Gamboa, Cristobal Cruz and Juan Manuel Marquez. Salido turned pro at age 15 and suffered most of his losses while he was still a teen. It was a disastrous loss for Lopez, whose impressive display of courage and heart was unfortunately overshadowed by his stunning postfight interview with Showtime's Jim Gray in which Lopez, perhaps still concussed from the knockout, accused Ramirez of stopping the fight because he had gambled on the outcome. It was an outrageous accusation to make against a longtime championship referee. Lopez issued a statement on Sunday to apologize. It could be a long road back for Lopez, whose career and reputation are now in tatters after another upset knockout loss to Salido and the disappointing postfight comments.

Thankfully, Salido brought his own two judges -- his fists -- to the fight, because as terrible as Lopez's remarks were, the scoring was way worse. It was simply horrendous. Salido, plain and simple, was winning the fight at the time of the knockout. It was competitive, sure, but there is simply no way that Lopez could have possibly been ahead, even with the knockdown (in a round that could have easily been scored only 10-9 for Lopez because Salido had so thoroughly dominated before being dropped).

Not that judges have access to punch statistics, but it was pretty obvious who was landing more and doing more damage. According to Showtime's statistics, Salido landed 235 of 637 punches (37 percent) to Lopez's 138 of 559 (25 percent). However, the telling statistic is that Salido more than doubled Lopez in power connects (230 to 111). Yet, incredibly judge Danny Nelson had the fight 85-85 going into the 10th round. As putrid as that scorecard was, judges Michael Pernick and Cesar Ramos were even worse as they disgustingly had Lopez ahead 86-84. Those cards are simply not acceptable. Thankfully, this fight ended in a knockout or we were on our way to a really bad decision that would have overshadowed a classic fight.

Rafael's remarks: It is only a matter of time before Garcia, 24, of Oxnard, Calif., fights for a world title. He has made his way up the ranks, dominated most of his fights and patiently waited for a shot. This destruction of the Philippines' Concepcion, 24, a two-time title challenger, was probably the final hurdle before his opportunity. If there was any concern in the Garcia camp about Concepcion, it was his punching power. He can crack, despite his deceptive knockout ratio. Last time Concepcion fought in Puerto Rico, he challenged then-featherweight titlist Juan Manuel Lopez in July 2010 and had him on the deck in the wild first round before being stopped in the second round. In his previous title fight, Concepcion challenged then-titlist Steven Luevano in 2009 and did major damage when he knocked him out after the bell ended the seventh round and was disqualified for the foul. Garcia, however, toyed with Concepcion. Garcia never allowed the Manny Pacquiao protégé to land anything big whatsoever.

Garcia is so poised and professional in the way he goes about his business you wouldn't know if he was dominating or losing badly. As usual, he was a calm, cool operator as he dismantled Concepcion with accurate punches and enough movement not to get hit with anything significant in return. It was almost like he was on cruise control, so it would be nice to see Garcia press the action a little bit more, especially against an opponent who seemed befuddled. Garcia steadily built on a tentative start and slowly broke Concepcion down until the seventh round. That is when he nailed him with a right hand that hurt him before dropping him with a combination a moment later. Concepcion, now 1-3 in his last four bouts, survived, but Garcia was all over him with a flurry of unanswered blows when referee Luis Pabon stepped in to call it off at 2 minutes, 33 seconds. Garcia scored his sixth consecutive knockout.

Before the fight, Garcia talked about his hope that he would land a shot against the winner of the Orlando Salido-Lopez main event, which turned out to be Salido. It is a very easy fight to make because they are both with Top Rank, but there is also an even stronger possibility that Garcia could wind up challenging titleholder Celestino Caballero instead this summer. Either way, Garcia is going to get the shot he deserves.

Rafael's remarks: Gonzalez, 28, of Puerto Rico, had just five amateur fights and is a raw pro. He has poor punching technique and showed no concept of a body attack that was available to him, but he got the job done in a pretty boring fight. Hevinson had taken the fight on just a few days' notice. It was a surprise that the fight was as bad as it was because three weeks ago, Hevinson, 27, a native of Colombia living in Miami, was in Puerto Rico to fight Abner Cotto in a TeleFutura main event and it was a terrific fight, which Hevinson lost via decision. This fight, however, was not nearly as good. Both fighters were quite tentative and economical (to be nice) with their punches, leaving the crowd booing. Gonzalez finally began to do something in the fifth round, hurting Hevinson with some left hands. Gonzalez kept it up in the sixth round, finally knocking Hevinson -- who was bleeding from his mouth -- to his knees right at the end of the round. Gonzalez dominated the seventh, when he landed a clean left hand that sent Hevinson's mouthpiece flying out of his mouth. It was finally over in the eighth as Gonzalez landed an unanswered flurry of shots and referee Jose Hiram Rivera stepped in to stop it at 1 minute, 12 seconds. Gonzalez picked up his attack as the fight went on, landing 155 of 362 punches (43 percent), according to CompuBox, while Herrera was absolutely pathetic, landing just 32 of 322 blows (10 percent).

Rafael's remarks: Arroyo, one-half of the fighting Arroyo twins along with brother McJoe, was a standout amateur for Puerto Rico. He was a 2008 Olympian (and was picked to carry the Puerto Rican flag during the opening ceremonies) and a 2009 amateur world champion before turning pro in early 2010. His fourth pro fight was a slugfest with Takashi Okada, and Arroyo lost a four-round decision that knocked him a bit off track. Now, the 26-year-old has won eight in a row after a dominant decision against the very experienced Maldonado, 34, of Mexico. Maldonado has lost six of his past seven fights, but he has faced numerous top fighters and three times fought for world titles (twice at flyweight and once at junior bantamweight). In world title bouts, Maldonado has lost to Vic Darchinyan, Nonito Donaire and Fernando Montiel. He was just the kind of opponent to give Arroyo the pro experience he needs. Mission accomplished. Arroyo got some important American television exposure thanks to Showtime's fan-friendly new initiative to televise undercard fights before the main telecast on its Showtime Extreme channel. He went 10 rounds for the first time in his first scheduled 10-rounder. Arroyo had no problems handling the distance as he seemed quite fresh at the end of the fight despite a small cut over his right eye. He dominated the tough Maldonado, who was never close to going down and fought with a nasty cut under his right eye from the sixth round on.

Rafael's remarks: In late 2010, Burns, 28, of Scotland, got off the deck from a first-round knockdown and outpointed Rocky Martinez in a mild upset to win a junior lightweight title. After three defenses, Burns gave up the title and moved up to lightweight (in part to avoid a mandatory defense against Adrien Broner). Burns then won a clear decision against veteran brawler Michael Katsidis to claim a vacant interim belt but was elevated to full titleholder when Juan Manuel Marquez was stripped for inactivity in the weight class. So Burns, with a passionate hometown crowd roaring his every move (Scottish fans are among the best in the world), made his first defense against the dangerous Moses, 33, of Namibia. Moses is not well-known but is a solid professional, and he had won three fights in a row since Miguel Acosta knocked Moses out in the sixth round to take his belt (in Namibia) in May 2010.

But Burns had way too much class for Moses. Although Moses was competitive in each round of the fight, he simply could never get anything seriously going against the much slicker Burns, who snapped a nice jab, worked the body effectively and moved well. Moses basically followed him around the whole fight and never applied enough pressure or threw combinations to make Burns uncomfortable. Burns dictated the whole fight and Moses needed to do a lot more if he had a prayer to win rounds, much less get a decision in Scotland. In the end, Moses was lucky to win even three rounds on the one judge's scorecard. It was a very solid win for Burns, who said before the fight that he had never looked at any video of Moses because he wanted to see him in the ring and then size him up. That sure worked, didn't it? Promoter Frank Warren and Burns' team have talked about a summer showdown with England's Kevin Mitchell -- whose only loss is a knockout to Katsidis -- next. That is an attractive fight, especially for fans in the U.K. Since Warren promotes both fighters it probably has a very good chance of being made.

Rafael's remarks: This pathetic mismatch probably was not as tough as Lee's sparring as he blitzed the outgunned and much smaller Duran, of Mexico, who boxed from featherweight to lightweight when he was decent in the late 1990s and early 2000s but is now a 39-year-old traveling opponent with zero chance to win or even be remotely competitive against anyone with a pulse at middleweight. Lee went easy on him in the first round. It looked like a sparring session, and not even a very good one. Then Lee put us all out of our misery in the second round, ending it 54 seconds in when he hit Duran with a left hand to the body. Duran went down to his knees, and although he beat the count, he did not look very interested in continuing and the referee called it off, sparing the audience of any more of this grotesque match. Duran dropped to 4-6 in his last 10 fights, but he has been knocked out inside of four rounds in each of the losses.

Lee, 27, of Ireland but living in Detroit with trainer and manager Emanuel Steward, was staying busy -- if you can even call it that -- when other fights in the works did not come off. Lee should have been preparing to fight on HBO on March 17 on the undercard of middleweight champion Sergio Martinez's fight against Matthew Macklin, in New York on St. Patrick's Day no less. But Lee dropped out when the network, promoter Lou DiBella and Lee could not agree on a deal or opponent (although he could have made more money than in this fight to fight on the untelevised undercard with HBO showing highlights). There was a possibility of a shot at titlist Felix Sturm in Germany in April for Lee, but that was never much of a possibility to begin with and did not come off. Neither did the remote possibility of Top Rank's tapping Lee to challenge titlist Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in June. So Lee, for reasons that still make very little sense, rejected an HBO fight for a six-figure payday and wound up fighting in front of a sparse crowd at what looked like a community center for little money against a horrible opponent on a shaky Internet stream instead of on HBO. Go figure. Lee got a win, but it did nothing whatsoever to advance the contender's career in any way.

Rafael's remarks: Geale, 31, of Australia, is one of those fighters who deserves the chance to be seen by an American television audience. He is a legit top guy at 160 pounds and makes good fights. He went to Germany in May 2011 and rightfully won a split decision against Sebastian Sylvester to win a belt. Now, after two defenses at home, promoter Gary Shaw would like to bring him to the United States and plans to gauge the interest in him from HBO and Showtime. In his second defense, he outpointed rugged Adama in a pretty good fight. Adama was game and pressed the action, but Geale was also aggressive and just better. He outboxed Adama, who had a few moments in the middle of the fight but could never truly assert himself. Geale's two defenses (against Eromosele Albert and Adama) did not come against top-level opposition. But if he comes to America, Shaw would like to match him against other middleweights who also need exposure in the U.S. as they try to land major fights. Forget about Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. facing Geale. That ain't gonna happen. But Shaw might have a chance to pit him against titlist Dmitry Pirog or Gennady Golovkin, who are in a similar position as Geale in that they are talented fighters who want major fights and TV exposure in the United States. Shaw has also mentioned a fight down the road against former undisputed champion Jermain Taylor, who is on the comeback trail after a long layoff, or even lineal champion Sergio Martinez (if he comes through Saturday's fight with Matthew Macklin). Whomever Geale fights next, Shaw seems confident that it will be in the U.S. and on premium cable. Adama, 31, a native of Ghana living in Miami, got the mandatory title shot by stopping former junior middleweight titlist Roman Karmazin in the ninth round in October. But Adama's three-fight winning streak since losing an eight-round decision to Donovan George in April 2010 came to an end.

Rafael's remarks: Dib, 26, of Australia, had earned a well-deserved reputation of being an unwatchable fighter in the John Ruiz and Derrick Gainer mold -- no action, lots of running and holding, and generally agonizing. It was so bad that he was essentially blackballed from HBO, which, understandably, refused to buy any fight with him in it, including when he was due to face Miguel Angel "Mikey" Garcia for a vacant belt. Since HBO wasn't interested in the bout, Garcia passed on the title bout and fought somebody else on HBO while Dib outpointed Jorge Lacierva for the vacant belt. Dib has heard the message loud and clear about his style and has, to his credit, adapted somewhat. He has become more aggressive and more willing to fight than run. He showed it in his first walkover defense against overmatched Alberto Servidei, a first-round knockout victim in November, and in his second defense against Mexico's Escobedo, his mandatory challenger. Dib took it right to Escobedo, 28, although Dib did land a low blow in the first round that Escobedo got time to recover from. Escobedo was in control in the third round, but lost a point for holding and hitting as referee Ernie Sharif threatened to disqualify Dib if he did not fight clean. Escobedo's best moment came in the fourth round when he hurt Dib with a right hand, but Dib was fairly dominant in a rough, tough fight. His body attack really took a toll on Escobedo, who quit on his stool after the sixth round. It seemed to be from a combination of the withering body attack and general frustration with his inability to do any real damage. This was a solid win for Dib, who perhaps has turned the corner in terms of settling into a professional style. He's working with noted American manager and agent Cameron Dunkin and may try to come to the United States to see if he can land a notable fight. Escobedo saw his an 11-fight winning streak come to an end. He had not lost since dropping a decision to countryman Daniel Ponce De Leon in a 2007 junior featherweight title fight.