By: Sean Crose
The finish was a little reminiscent of Mike McCallum’s stunning one-punch knockout of Donald Curry in 1987. In the middle of a tense, high-stakes fight, McCallum threw a left hook seemingly out of nowhere that sent Curry famously sprawling and unconscious in front of HBO cameras. This time, it was Angelo Leo who threw the left hook, and Luis Lopez was the one who fell backwards with the referee counting him out while ESPN cameras filmed the entire thing. It was a perfect knockout, one that could have earned Leo knockout of the year honors, but more importantly, it gave Leo, who is now 24-2, the IBF featherweight world title.
Lopez, who fought well until the final moments of the fight, now holds a 30-2 record. But there was no doubt that the night belonged to the new champion. “We’ve been training for it for four or five months,” Leo said of the tenth-round left hook that rocked the boxing world after the fight ended. “I want to fight all the champions.” What made the fight even sweeter for Leo was the fact that it was in front of his hometown Albuquerque crowd. “Thank you to all my fans,” Leo said. “I love you guys.” With a win like Saturday’s, Leo gave Albuquerque a good reason to love him back.
