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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 4324153, member: 289"] It's been a while since I reported on a boxing match. Tonight, after watching the Mets squeeze out a 1-0 win over the Phillies, I checked out the ESPN card. A good-looking 19-year-old Puerto Rican 'super welter' named Xander Zayas pounded out a 5th round KO against a game but over-matched 28-year-old Mexican fighter named Elias Espadas. He was sharp and aggressive, took a few too many counter-shots but dominated the fight He's 14-0 with 10 knockouts and is a good-looking kid, (both meanings), who could become a star. Boxrec rates him #65 in the division but that will rise. Espadas was #130. I was curious to see what Lopez looked like as a junior welter, after his hugely disappointing performance against the since-dethroned Kambosis and after still another long lay-off. He was rated #3 in the division based on his name recognition and his opponent, Pedro Campa, (34-1-1 against nobodies) was #63. Lopez was bigger than his lightweight opponents but not Campa, who came forward aggressively and forced the action in the early rounds. Lopez was content to back up to the ropes and counter-punch. I gave Campa the second round for his aggressiveness, but Lopez was clearly the better fighter, faster of hands and feet. In the middle rounds, Lopez got more aggressive and hit Campa coming in with some hard shots that took the aggressiveness out of him. He finally floored him in the 7th and then put on an amateurish display, grabbing the ropes, unnecessarily shifting his stance, wiggling his fanny before knocking him down again, causing the ref to stop the bout. Teo can still become a force in boxing if he takes it seriously. The question is: where does he go from here? the junior welters are not that interesting a division but there are big names in the lightweight division - and in the welterweights. But I'm not sure he's up to Bud Crawford or Errol Spence. [/QUOTE]

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