I spent some time reviewing a few of his fights today and am wondering if anyone enjoys him as much as I do? How do you veiw him?: as a great fighter...A good boxer who would never claim gold (Not counting the California LHW title)...a warrior but not a great boxer? Could he be THE MAN in another era, perhaps today? He put on some great shows against Conteh (Very close), Galindez X's2 (an argument could certainly be mad that he won one or even both of these?), Miricle Matthew (Franklin) Saad Muhammad (1980 FOTY and both terrific battles where he was very competitive), a great 7 rd battle with Michael Spinks (Who was just on the cusp of greatness) where Yaqui controlled the early rds. and scorecards were even going into the 7th. A nice win over Mike Rossman. Oh well I love watching Yaqui fight even if he has turned out to be largely forgotten, I will place him with Briscoe as one of the best not to win the Gold...I have enjoyed every moment of his fights that I have seen
Cheers, he's a fine fine fighter this one and doesn't get mentioned much. Like an Albert Davila he was around at a very difficult time. Some real talent then.
Very good fighter, though not quite great. Will be remembered as the prototypical perennial title challenger who just keeps falling short in his most important fights - though in another, weaker era, who knows what would've happened.
LOpez was a great fighter. I have several of his fights, and I love to se him in action. I just have to correct you on one of the fights. The Conteh fight was not close. I was fought here in Copenhagen, Denmark. Conteh was sparring his often broken right hand, an kept Lopez on the end of a long left jab. Conteh kept his head and jabbed his way to a huge points victory. Woller
149-145, 149-145, 148-146 by the 3 judges. My calculation was 146-144. By my assesssment that makes for a close fight. Don't get me wrong Conteh definately won a clear decision, but in my book it was a close fight. Not one where you can call the decision into question as per the Galindez fights...but to me a competitive fight clearly won by Conteh.
I have been thinking about this for a couple of hours now (Too much time on my hands, I guess LOL...but boxing is always the perfect escape!). But this was really a masterful performance by Conteh, even though I found it close (Very close may have been to strong a statement?). This was along with his performances against Finnegan among the best of his carear. he was able to keep Yaqui at bay better than nerly anyone. And while he did not KO Yaqui as MS Muhammad & Spinks (2 years later as well) none of them controlled or limited yaqui as much or as well as Conteh did. truely a superb job on his part!
It depended on how you scored the late rounds. Conteh got off to a big early lead, but I felt a lot of the rounds down the stretch were close, as Lopez was the aggressor and Conteh was not consistent with his counterpunches (holding back his right hand). If you gave Lopez every benefit of the doubt, you could probably make it a close fight. It is interesting to note that Conteh with one hand was able to beat Lopez with less trouble than guys like Saad Muhammad and Galindez were fighting with two. I think that goes to show just what potential Conteh really had.
Does anyone remember what it was Lopez supposedly said in the post-fight interview after beating Rossman?. something about not liking jews, when the commentator mentioned how fired up he had been. I've never watched the post-fight stuff, not eevn sure it's on my copy of the fight actually.
I find it amazing that the judges scored so many rounds even. Two judges had 10 rounds even each, and the third judge scored nine rounds tied. That is very unusual in pro boxing. As for how close the fight was, I discussed it with reknowned boxing writer Graham Houston ("Fightwriter"). Houston was at ringside that night, and he said that although the bout was hard fought and closely contested, Conteh was a very clear winner.
Yaqui Lopez was an excellent fighter. He was very unlucky not to have held a world title belt, as many of the WBA and WBC titleholders of his era were inferior to him in ability. Lopez fought everybody, he was always in great shape, he had superb technical skills and tremendous natural talent.
A mighty fun fighter and an American TV favourite, in arguably the 175lbers strongest era. Never spoilled his record by finally winning a title (unlike say a Bruno), he deserves a lot of kudos for rarely being in a dull fight.
