A KING AMONG KINGS MIRACLE MATTHEW BURNS LOPEZ IN LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT HELL
MCAFEE, N.J. – In one of the greatest fights a reporter could ever hope to cover, in one of the most spectacular fights a fan could ever dream of watching, Matthew Saad Muhammad retained his world light heavyweight title for the fourth time, stopping fired- up challenger Alvaro “Yaqui” Lopez in 2:03 of the 14th round after flooring him a total of four times during that round. It was a dramatic ending to what had been a dramatic, see-saw, punch-filled, glorious fight at the Great Gorge Playboy Club. Lopez, 174¾, trained for a rough fight. He came to Great Gorge to take away Muhammad’s title. To decision him. To knock him out. To cut him up. To win the title. Muhammad, 174¼, trained for his fight with an intensity he had never shown before – remarkable for a man who pushes himself in training all the time. It was as if he knew the fight would demand the best effort he ever gave, despite the fact he had stopped the same Lopez in October 1978. For the first seven rounds, both fighters took turns punching the other around and being the aggressor. Early in the bout, Muhammad suffered a slight cut above his right eye. Lopez sustained a slice on the bridge of his nose in round three. Neither cut determined the outcome of the fight. Ferocity did. The fierceness of the contest demanded three
Not only did he remain on his feet, he came back punching with both hands to stagger and nearly drop the challenger. At the bell, the 1,300 fans in the Playboy Club Convention Center roared with the intensity of a crowd 10 times as large. Round nine saw the action slow, but only in comparison to the incredible pace both fighters had set through the first eight rounds. Both men were tired. Both men were hurt. But it was Muhammad – not Lopez – who recovered from the viciousness of round eight. Lopez won the round. He won that individual battle, but he lost the war in doing so. Lopez had punched himself out. His zip was gone. So was his long-burning hope of finally winning a title. Lopez fought hard, but against this gritty, determined champion, he needed more. Much more. Like a child’s windup toy, Lopez began to move slower. His legs lost their bounce, his punches their snap. Muhammad began to land with more frequency. Approximately midway through round 14, Lopez was rocked by an overhand right. A right uppercut then dropped him. He was up at eight but went down again moments later from another right. Again Lopez was up at eight, and again he ran into a right that sent him to the canvas. Referee Schmidt watched Lopez closely as the veteran contender rose at three. As the fight resumed – the three-knockdown rule had been waived – Schmidt continued to watch
minutes of action in every round by both contestants. Three minutes per round is what they gave. For the first seven rounds, fans – and even hardened reporters – applauded the action. Then, unbelievably, the fight became even more exciting. Going into round eight, judge Paul Cavaliere had Lopez in the lead, 4-2-1. Judge Emile Brunette and referee Waldemar Schmidt had Lopez even more comfortably in the lead, 5-2. The Ring card had it 4-3 Lopez at that point. Round eight must be written into the books as one of the most sensational, exciting rounds ever fought. Ever! After being stung by a hook to the head early in the eighth, Lopez came back to nearly knock out the champion midway through the round, only to nearly get knocked out himself in the closing moments of the round. Lopez hurt Muhammad with a hook flush on the chin and began to taste a world title in this, his fourth attempt to win one. Despite the pleas from his corner to “draw back and box,” Lopez, 28, unloaded both hands against Muhammad. A left. A right. A left. A right. Every one – nearly two dozen – crashed against the champion’s jaw, the champion’s head, the champion’s face. The champion wavered. He staggered. He buckled. But the 26-year-old champion would not fall.
Lopez closely. Muhammad moved in. So did Schmidt. A sharp right to the chin dumped Lopez near the ropes. Again he rose, using the ropes to pull himself to his feet. But this time, Schmidt waved his arms. He had seen enough. The fight was over at 2:03. Afterwards, Lopez said about the champion: “He is not a great fighter. He is a great puncher!” When asked what happened in the eighth round, Lopez said, “I hit him (Muhammad) some good shots, but he just didn’t go down. That’s why he’s champion.” Muhammad – who did not appear before the press for 90 minutes after the fight – admitted he was in trouble during that eighth round but “knew where I was.” He said, “I knew I’d come back, and I did.” The victory upped the champion’s record to 27-3-2. For Lopez, it was his 10th loss in 59 fights. In New York’s Gleason’s Gym two days after the fight, Lopez put the championship bout in perspective better than anybody. “It was a sensational fight,” said the man who helped make it such. “You have no idea of how I wanted the title. But Saad Muhammad just wanted it more. It wasn’t so much a case of me losing the fight as it was Saad Muhammad winning it.”
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