battle of the big hitters. cuevas knocked out 10 of 11 welterweight title defenses. 35 career wins with 31 knockouts. but lopez had his big wins too. he became WBO champ with a one round knockout. then defended the belt a five round stoppage of a PRIME yory boy campas.....which included a knockdown of the iron chinned campas. something not even guys like trinidad or dela hoya did. he also twice floored ike quartey before recieving a draw in the end. he also had an iron chin. as far as i know he was never floored. cuevas was more ferocious, lopez did a better job at putting his shots together. cuevas made more defenses, but i think lopez beat the better fighters. lopez was a mystery to me. he had all the talent, but he just didnt take boxing serious enough. after getting outworked by james page (a fight where lopez had his man down again), he just more or less walked away. anyway, would he have been good enough for cuevas????
These are two pretty tough guys that would make a ferocious fight.Cuevas had more career highlights and his biggest wins were usually brutal ko's. Against Quartey and Page, Lopez did just enough not to win.If Cuevas had these guys hurt like Jose Luis did, they would not have survived.I would pick Cuevas , by ko.
this is difficult cause both of these fighters had two faces: for lopez it was simply a question of motivation and letting his hands go. of killer instinct and determination. he had the physical tools. but sometimes he just sleepwalked and let the other guy outwork him. with cuevas, its a bit more difficult. he had one style: he came straight at you cranking up that left hook looking to take your head off. always the guy going forward hunting his prey. but then hearns backed him up and knocked him out. a few comback wins, then duran took him out. then herman montes and so on. what cuevas never really had prior to the hearns fight was a big puncher in front of him. with lopez, he was hit by guys like campas, quartey and page...flush shots and he took em. so we knew that in his prime he had an iron jaw. but what about cuevas?? did his punch resistance simply go away after the hearns disaster........or was his chin not so good after all?? prior to hearns, cuevas biggest punching foe was probably pete ranzany. the rest of his challengers were average hitters....and some were featherfisted. against these guys cuevas could just force the fight........and he looked great doing so. but what would happen if a guy like lopez had stayed with him and just banged back?? and banged back hard??? could cuevas have taken lopez shots?......cause im pretty certain lopez could have taken his. with this in mind i imagine a toe to toe slugfest which ends with three knockdowns in round eight......and lopez the winner.
Lopez did not like taking punishment even though he did have an iron chin. He may very well go into a tua-esque shell when Cuevas lands, like he did with Quartey and Page. Still, Cuevas was vulnerable to another big puncher so i wouldn't rule Lopez out.
Wow, that would have been an incredible battle. Very hard to call. I tend to agree with Xplosive that pre-Hearns Cuevas probably has the edge, but post-Hearns Cuevas gets outlasted and stopped due to Lopez's amazing durability. Too bad Lopez let his drug problems derail his career.
Lopez could be out-worked, but was impossible to out-slug. Think I have to give him the edge over Cuevas, based on having superior timing and chin.
