Luis Alberto Lopez ended a competitive fight with a beautiful right uppercut in the fifth round that dropped Michael Conlan, resulting in the Irish fighter’s corner throwing in the towel tonight in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The time of the stoppage was at 1:14 of round five.
Conlan (18-2, 9 KOs) had been doing well up until getting caught with the uppercut from IBF featherweight champion Lopez (28-2, 16 KOs).
There was no chance of the 31-year-old Conlan continuing even if the corner hadn’t thrown in the towel. He was down on the canvas for a long time and looked in bad shape when he finally got back to his feet.
Conlan was doing well in making Lopez miss with his shots, but he couldn’t get out of the way of all of the shots, and he was wearing down from the pace just like he’d done in his loss to Ligh Wood last year.
Despite missing with the vast majority of his shots, Lopeez stayed calm and continued to load up with his punches, looking for that one big punch to put Conlan away.
Before the fight, Conlan had said that he wouldn’t give up if he lost and that he would keep trying to eventually capture a world title. Unfortunately, Conlan might be fighting a losing battle because his amateur experience hasn’t carried over to the pro level, where he lacks the power in his shots to contend with the top guys in the featherweight division.
Luis Alberto Lopez: “I hope all the world champions at the featherweight division are ready for ‘Venado’ Lopez. I’m coming for all of them. I want all their belts. One by one, I’m taking all their belts with me to Mexico.”
Michael Conlan: “Lopez had my respect before the fight and still has my respect after the fight. He hits very hard. He just beat me. He travels well and is a great champion.
It’ll be interesting to see if Conlan retires now or if his promoters at Top Rank can get him a third title shot. They promote WBO featherweight champion Robeisy Ramirez, so it’s possible that Conlan can get another crack of the whip if he beats a couple of fringe contenders in rapid fashion like we saw after his loss to Leigh Wood last year.
Conlan was lucky to be given this title shot against Lopez because he didn’t earn it after losing to Wood in a failed title challenge last year. He beat a couple of cream puff opponents before being given this title shot, and that won’t happen again.
If Conlan wants another world title shot, he’s going to have to beat someone good, and he doesn’t have the talent.
