Round by Round: Ponce De Leon vs Lopez

The first fight tonight is between Daniel Ponce De Leon vs. Juan Manuel Lopez. It is at the 122 pound weight class. De Leon is the better known fighter in this fight and is highly favored, but many believe that this is a winnable fight for Lopez.

Lopez, of Puerto Rican decent, is out to the ring first and is also undefeated. De Leon, of Mexico, follows. His record is 34-1.

Side note: Michael Buffer recently got married.

Buffer finishes with the intros and it's time to start the fight.

Rd 1: Both fighters square off in the middle of the ring. De Leon is the aggressor in the beginning, throwing fast combos to the head and body. Lopez is throwing some good counters. Lopez lands a hard straight right. De Leon looks to swing for the fences. Lopez lands a very hard right hook and De Leon goes down hard. He makes it up but his legs are gone. Ponce is taking horrible punishment. He goes down again but he gets up on shaky legs but the ref says no more. It's over. Lopez scores a 1st round KO victory.

Juan Manuel Lopez wins by TKO

Lopez says he was looking to land his right hand. He says that he thought Ponce De Leon was going to be ready for his right hook but apparently he was not. He says he's going to talk to his managers and set up a good opponent for his next fight. Kellerman says that he's certainly established himself in the division.

Twenty-Twenty Hindsight - December 10, 2007 - Mayweather-Hatton, Jeff Lacy and More

I've decided to change the name of my look back at the weekend that was in boxing to celebrate something that happens more often in the sweet science than in any other sport. As fans and observers, we're constantly changing our opinions after the fact. Even things we "knew" going into the fights are often fluid.

In the rush to coronate Floyd Mayweather Jr. as the greatest ever, or even the greatest boxer today, we shouldn't lose sight of what he's really about. His new, self-given nickname makes it perfectly clear: he's about the money. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, since boxing is his job. We just need to keep in mind that Floyd is more interested in being a star than he is in proving himself the best - especially since he's already convinced himself he is the best.

So no, we're not going to see him fight Miguel Cotto or Paul Williams or any fights he could actually, you know, lose. There's not as much money in them as the fight he just took, and Pretty Boy knows it. Ricky Hatton provided the perfect opponent at the perfect time, as his rabid fans helped add to the financial side of the fight while his aggressive style made gave many experts just the slightest hope he may have a chance to win.

As we saw, that hope was largely unfounded. The Hitman succeeded in making it an ugly fight at times, but once Mayweather made some adjustments there was really not much drama. The fact that one judge gave Hatton only one round at the time he was knocked out tells you that he wasn't really in the fight.

The HBO announcers made the assertion that Hatton brought out the best in Mayweather, but that's an exaggeration. He made Floyd fight a little differently than he's fought in the past, but did he really push him? I don't think so, and I'm not sure we'll ever see Money in a fight that will reveal the full nature of his tremendous skills.

That's because PBF's best skill is knowing exactly what fights to take to realize his own goals. He's become the heir apparent to Roy Jones Jr. in that regard, racking up wins and making money while putting himself in very little actual danger. You've got to admire him for the way he's transformed himself into what he really wanted to be all along - a star - even as you wish he'd really push himself further.

There was an undercard on Saturday too, it just wasn't a very good one. Daniel Ponce de Leon looks like he is trying to learn how to become an actual boxer, but in the process he drained most of the excitement out of his fight. Let's hope he figures out a way to round out his game while retaining the combination of aggressiveness and power that marked the early stages of his career.

Jeff Lacy also was less than scintillating, and two of the three BoxingWatchers.com staffers actually scored his fight for his opponent. Is he, as the HBO announcers seemed to hope, just shaking the ring rust off following his serious shoulder surgery? Perhaps, but if he fights future fights the way he did Saturday night, he's much more likely to be used as a stepping stone for up-and-coming fighters than he is to make a serious comeback of his own.

Undefeated: Mayweather-Hatton Undercard LiveBlog

We're wasting no time tonight with Wes Ferguson-Edner Cherry about to start and we're just a minute into the PPV broadcast. Cherry won the first time these two clashed - we'll see what goes down tonight. Hit refresh often for updates.

Edner Cherry KO6 Wes Ferguson

I'm inclined to dislike Cherry simply because of his high red socks. He got warned early on for punching after the ref had stepped in for a break. His trainer is upset with him already, telling him he lost the first round. He came out looking a lot more aggressive in the second round, but nothing decisive has happened through two.

Hatton shown on his way in, sporting his bucket hat. Meanwhile, it's never a good sign when Jim Lampley makes fun of Harold Lederman for calling the opener an interesting fight.

Miguel Cotto is on hand, looking all business. Or possibly bored, it's hard to say.

Ferguson goes down in the sixth - it was a pretty nice left hook by Cherry though it didn't look like it hurt Ferguson that much. Cherry tries to press it and get Ferguson out of there, but no dice. Late in the round, Ferguson gets tagged by another left hook and he's not getting up. His head really hit the mat hard when he went down - Emmanuel Steward says he shouldn't even be allowed to train for six months.

Floyd is shown chilling in the MGM Grand's "A" dressing room. Daniel Ponce de Leon and Eduardo Escobedo are up next. This is for the WBO jr. featherweight title, apparently.

Daniel Ponce de Leon UD12 Eduardo Escobedo

I love Kenny Bayless' line: "What I say, you must obey." Nice.

Escobedo actually tags De Leon with a couple of nice shots in the first round. He's moving and countering well.

Ponce gets a warning for hitting in the back and behind the head. He looked like he found the range a little better with both hands in the second.

The third round begins at a much faster pace and both guys look willing to trade. There's an ongoing debate over Escobedo's tactic of intentionally turning his back. As in, is it really Ponce De Leon's fault if he hits him in the back if his opponent is giving him no choice?

Larry Merchant just pointed out the Brits are unusually quiet because they don't care about this fight. Nice counter shots by Escobedo and it looks like Ponce can take some punches. If you combined the strengths of these two guys you'd have one hell off a fighter.

More goodness from the mouth of Merchant: it's been a bad night for pure boxers so far. And anything that happened before the broadcast doesn't count.

Steward thinks Ponce de Leon is cut. Those two right hands by Escobedo won't help. Escobedo goes down but it was obviously a slip, and is ruled as such. Ponce sure is committed to coming forward - hopefully Hatton is taking notes.

Through six rounds, Lederman has Escobedo behind five rounds to one. I think it may be closer but Ponce should be winning.

More discussion about Escobedo's questionable ducking tactics. And here come the Ricky Hatton chants from the crowd! Merchant: "Sounds like the Brits decided to entertain themselves since this fight isn't doing it for them."

Neither fighter has ever had a KO after the 8th round, so there's a good chance we're in it for the long haul now. I can't help but think that something Lampley said earlier may be right: he may have had a better chance if he was just the wild swinger he was a few fights ago. Now they're asking Lederman if Escobedo can be penalized for his ducking and turning away; Harold says he can.

Floyd gets his instructions. I've never really been sure why they show this since nothing interesting ever happens.

Lamps thinks Ponce de Leon is in good shape because judges tend to favor more aggressive boxers even if not all of their punches are landing. I'd say it depends on the judges. Merchant says these guys have sucked the life out of the arena.

And that's it. The announcers didn't like it, the fans didn't seem to like it, and about the only thing that happened is that the favorite didn't look particularly good.

Here come the scores: 115-113, 117-111 and 118-110 all for Ponce de Leon.