this is definitely a big big fight. i dont believe that rafa is shot, not after his latest performance. however i just see lopez as being too strong for im. i have it about 70-30 for lopez, however lands the first big shot should win
You can believe whatever you chose to believe. If you don't think those areas are a problem for JuanMa, than you may want to take a closer look at his fights. There's a reason he was almost knocked out by a journeyman.
BigReg is right. Juanma's defense blows, he leaves himself really open when he likes to brawl and he doesn't have the chin to take risks like that footwork is so so, he's solid going back and forth but his lateral movement and ring cutting aren't very good rofl does anyone remember that part of saturdays fight where he was pretty much running after concepcion?
I think that Lopez will be too big and too heavy handed for Rafa who will go down in a blaze of glory and have his moments. But will be KO'd by the middle rounds.
I'm a big Rafa fan. Rafa is the best 118 pounder of his time imo. From his TKO victory in the 2nd Mark Johnson fight to his title winning stoppage of Tim Austin, Marquez showed great precision. He also showed great power at 118 by being the first man to stop Pastrana and of course Slience Mabuza twice. With that said I don't like this fight for him. At 118 Rafa did not have the best chin, He had been knocked out 3 times early in his career and been hurt a few times in fights he went on to win. At 122 Vasquez power along with his heart won him the trilogy. Rafa has only faced Jose Mendoza at 126, not a world class fighter to base anything off of. And that 4th fight with Vasquez was an abortion. Vasquez was a shadow of his former self, and it showed in his war with Priolo prior to the 4th fight with Marquez.
Excuses and reasons are 2 different things. There is a reason for everything, excuses for none. I will just ask you a question, if that's ok. Why do you think JML released his title and the Mtagwa fight was his last at 122?
He was struggling to make the weight. That's no excuse for struggling against a guy like Mtagwa. Donaire has to go through hell to make 115. His fight against Marquez was his last fight in that division. He fought half that fight left handed and still didn't struggle nearly as much as Lopez did against Mtagwa.
This fight has all the makings of a classic. The only thing detracting from it is the timing. Rafa is clearly on the downslide(not shot though). Even though Juanma has youth, speed and size in his favor, he also has some flaws that Marquez might be able to capitalize on.
One fight in his entire career doesnt mean there's a problem now if it happened a lot that's different but other than the Mtgwa fight he has dominated every other opponent he has fought :hat
Yes! That was the reason he left that division. Him and his team felt that making weight was clearly affecting his in the ring performance. And it worked. I'm aware of Donaire struggles to make weight and his south paw stance for the first 4 rounds. He also had a glute problem. and knocked "Tyson" Marquez out with a great uppercut. None of that has anything to do with Lopez or his own situation.
Many fighters struggle to make weight and still perform well. Weight issues is no reason to struggle like that against a predictable journeyman. Pavlik has struggled to make 160 since before the Taylor fights. Weight issues are a convinient excuse whenever a fighter doesn't perform well. Weight struggles or not, there's no way that Lopez should've been tagged as much as he was against Mtagwa. Lopez has defensive issues, footwork issues, and chin issues. Hopefully his team isn't blaming it on "weight struggles" and is working to correct the problem. Otherwise, JuanMa is going to get undressed. He sure as hell didn't struggle to make 126 yet he was dropped by Conception's weak hand when Conception was against the ropes, and he showed little ability to cut off the ring.