29.09.07 – By Scott Frake: World Boxing Organization super bantamweight Daniel Ponce De Leon (33-1, 30 KOs) obliterated an outclassed Reynaldo Lopez (28-5-2, 19 KOs) in the 5th round in a stay busy non-title fight on Friday night at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California. De Leon, 27, fighting for the first time since stopping Rey Bautista in the 1st round last month, knocked Lopez flat with a straight left hand in the 5th round. The referee Tony Crebs immediately stopped the action at 2:39 of the round, as Lopez was badly hurt and unable to continue..
The southpaw De Leon attacked viscously from the start of the fight, throwing powerful hooks, uppercuts and straight left hands at the weaker, 33-year old unranked Lopez.
De Leon pressed continuously in the first couple of rounds as he forced Lopez often to the ropes where he was unable to escape De Leon’s attacks. However, De Leon showed the same poor defense as he did in losing to Celestino Caballero in 2005, because the limited Lopez was able to hit De Leon cleanly on a frequent basis during the fight. De Leon’s hand speed was average, which allowed Lopez to take advantage of it by hitting a running before De Leon could counter him.
In the third round, De Leon continued forcing the action, and hurting Lopez with strong left hands. However, after driving Lopez to the ropes with several left hand shots, Lopez responded with a powerful flurry of shots that landed cleanly and backed De Leon off for a brief period. In that one instance, Lopez showed how limited De Leon is as a fighter, because he shouldn’t have been able to do that to a fighter with as much of a bloated reputation as De Leon. Lopez followed up with several more strong combinations that kept De Leon in check for the remainder of the round.
In the fourth round, De Leon fought with much more intensity than in the previous rounds, as if he realized that he hadn’t been impressing up to that point in the fight. De Leon kept Lopez back peddling the entire round, as he continuously threw left hands with knockout intentions. Lopez fought back and was still able to land a number of flush shots to the head of De Leon, but they were much less often than in previous rounds due to De Leon’s heavy pressure.
In the fifth round, De Leon began to throw more combinations, tagging Lopez with three and four-punch combinations and stinging him constantly. Near the end of the round, De Leon tagged Lopez with a blistering straight left hand. De Leon stepped back a couple of steps, and then came forward again with another left hand, this time knocking Lopez to the canvas. Once he hit the canvas, it was immediately clear that Lopez was hurt and wasn’t going to get up from the knockdown. The referee then moved in and stopped the bout at 2:38 of the round.