Josesito Lopez defeats Saul Corral

Boxingnews24.com

By Dan Ambrose: 32-year-old former junior middleweight title challenger Josesito Lopez (35-7, 19 KOs) easily beat a badly over-matched journeyman Saul Corral (23-9, 14 KOs) by a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision on Sunday night on Premier Boxing Champions on FSI at the Novo in Los Angeles, California.

Lopez knocked the 30-year-old Corral down in round 10 with a furry of shots after hurting him with a left. The final judges’ scores were 100-89, 100-89 and 100-89. Boxing News 24 scored the fight 10 rounds to 0 in favor or Lopez. The lighter Corral didn’t do enough to win any of the rounds.

For some reason, Corral wasn’t letting his hands go in the fight. He seemed timid and unwilling to take chances by throwing shots. Corral had talked about wanting to take Lopez into the deeper rounds before opening up on hm. He never did that tonight, as he just waited and waited without ever going after Lopez.

Lopez used his left hook and stiff jab to dominate the 5’9” Corral the entire fight.

Lopez hurt Corral with a left hook in the 6th round. Corral took the shot and tried in vain to land something in return. He didn’t connect. Moments before, Lopez had tagged Corral with consecutive right hands to the head.

In round 8, Lopez hammered Corral with power shots to the head and body. Lopez landed some hard left hooks to the body during the round. Corral finally woke up in the final seconds of the round to hit Lopez with a couple of right hands, but it wasn’t nearly enough for him to win the round.
In the 9th, Lopez flurried on Corral with a series of hard power shots to the head. Corral weathered the storm, but he looked hurt. At the end of the round, Lopez hit Corral with 2 big right hands to the head that got his attention.

Lopez hurt Corral at the start of the 10th round with a rocket left hand. Lopez battered Corral with power shots until he fell to the canvas in the corner. Corral got up from the knockdown with a defiant look on his face, and withstood Lopez’s attempt to finish him off. Lopez probably would have been able to knock Corral out if he hadn’t gassed out. Lopez looked tired after knocking Corral down. He didn’t have the stamina to get the job done.

Lopez fought well tonight in pounding out a 10 round decision, but he had a weak opponent in there with him. Lopez has always been able to beat guys like Corral. Historically, Lopez has had problems when he steps it up against good fighters like Andre Berto, Saul Canelo Alvarez and Jessie Vargas. Lopez still lacks the punching power and overall talent to beat the top dogs in the 147lb division. If Lopez could get back down to 140, he would be a lot better fighter. He’s not cut out for the welterweight division due to the better fighters. If Lopez lost some fat around his sides, he might be able to get back down to 140. He looks like he’s carrying around some excess fat on his frame that he could shed with hard work.

Josesito Lopez needs to stay active and start fighting on a more frequent basis because he doesn’t have a lot of time left in his career.
In the undercard, undefeated lightweight prospect Alejandro Luna (22-0, 15 KOs) defeated former world title challenger Andrey Klimov (19-4, 9 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision. Klimov was rocked a couple of times, but he stayed on his feet. Klimov’s left eye was cut.

The final judges’ scores were 98-92, 98-92, and 97-93. It was a competitive fight and hardly a mismatch. Luna, 25, looked good for the most part. He landed some nice shots, but his punching power and hand speed wasn’t that great. Lune will need to improve in both of those areas for him to compete with the better fighters in the lightweight division. Right now, Lune would struggle if he fought anyone better than Klimov. This was a really hard fight for Luna tonight.

Klimov was beaten by Liam Walsh in his last fight by a 12 round unanimous decision last October. Walsh beat Klimov by a one-sided decision. In 2015, Klimov was beaten by Jose Pedraza by a 12 round unanimous decision in a failed attempt to win the vacant IBF World super featherweight title. Klimov also lost to Terence Crawford by a 10 round unanimous decision in 2013. Klimov is better off fighting in the super featherweight division than facing lightweights. He doesn’t have the size or the pop in his punches to be fighting guys in the 135lb division.

In first fight in tonight’s televised card on Premier Boxing Champions, 2016 U.S. Olympian Karlos Balderas (1-0, 1 KOs) defeated Thomas Smith (3-5-1, 2 KOs) by a 1st round stoppage in super featherweight action. Balderas hit the game but limited Smith at will with power shots. In between round, Smith chose not to continue fighting. Balderas easily looked like the most talented fighter on the card. He’s someone to keep an eye on in the future. He still has a long ways to unless his promoter chooses to push him fast in his career like we’ve seen with Vasyl Lomachenko and Oleksandr Usyk.