Leo Gifts the Duke City with the “Knockout of the Year”!!
Suddenly in the 10th round in what had been a competitive fight up until that round—Leo caught el venado on a defensive lapse and-–boom— Leo threw a knockout left hook that left the crowd stunned—and left el Venado out for the count on the canvas.
What a knockout–definitely contender for “Knockout of the Year”! A clean hit to the chin that took the former champ off his feet.
Tingley Coliseum, who had already seen its fair share of action-packed boxing action this past Saturday, when Albuquerque native Angelo “El Chinito” Leo (24-1-11) threw that knockout left hook, at 1:16 of the 10th round, to dethrone Luis Alberto “El venado” Lopez and become the new IBF featherweight World Champion.
Lopez, who had won his last 13 fights, had also already defended his title successfully 3 times against very worthy opponents and was the number 1 ranked boxer at 126 lbs. He was confident throughout the match until the knockout. No surprise that he was a 5-1 favorite when the fight was announced originally. Lopez is a very offensively minded boxer with great speed and strength which he relies on heavily—but is also known for lax defense at times and has a tendency to hold his hands down.
Leo was waiting for that lax defensive window to throw that left hook that he had been practicing for this fight.
“It was a matter of time catching him, “said Leo of that left hook in the post-game press conference. “I just threw it, and it landed on the chin—I was hoping he wouldn’t get up cuz it was a good punch.”
The fight, scheduled for 12, up until the 10 rounds had been a good match up with Leo leading in 2 of the 3 scorecards. Lopez who had initially wanted to “end the fight quickly” found out early in the fight that Leo was a worthy adversary with Leo getting in some good shots in while at the same time absorbing Lopez’s punches and flurries. When asked about Lopez’s punches Leo said,“He had a heavy punch but that didn’t affect me.”
With this win, his 5th consecutive, Leo advances to 25-1 with 12 KO’s. This fight will go down as his most memorable to date and he did it in his hometown of Albuquerque. “The crowd is amazing— I really want to fight again (in Albuquerque) since I haven’t fought in Albuquerque in 9 years—this is my gift to you guys.”
A gift it was as the crowd in the Duke City was ecstatic and loud after the knockout. We could only hope to see Leo fight again locally!
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