Jeffrey Torres’ walk to the ring lasted almost as long as his fight Saturday at Barclays Center.
Philadelphia’s Torres needed just 1:58 to stop Emmanuel Valdez in a super lightweight fight scheduled for four rounds. Torres hit Valdez with an overhand right to left him slumped against the ropes with about 1:10 to go in the first round of the first fight on the Danny Garcia-Shawn Porter undercard.
Because the ropes held him up, it was counted as a knockdown. Once Valdez stood upright, the fight was stopped because he appeared badly hurt.
The 21-year-old Torres improved to 5-0 and recorded his third knockout. Mexico’s Valdez (5-6, 4 KOs) lost by technical knockout for the second time since July 21.
Following Torres’ victory, Ricky Lopez earned a hard-fought, unanimous-decision win against Ramsey Luna in an eight-round super featherweight bout. Lopez landed enough power shots to win their back-and-forth fight on all three scorecards (78-74, 78-74, 77-75).
The 31-year-old Lopez, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, upped his record to 20-4. The 26-year-old Luna, of Corpus Christi, Texas, fell to 14-6.
Lopez largely fought off his back foot, but exploited Luna’s defensive flaws with power punches that caught the judges’ attention, particularly during the second half of their fight.
Lopez drilled Luna with a three-punch combination as they stood in the center of the ring with slightly more than a minute remaining in the eighth and final round. Luna continued to come forward in the seventh round, but Lopez landed the harder punches during those three minutes.
Luna pressed the action throughout the sixth round and landed several hard body shots. Lopez managed to fire back just enough to keep Lopez honest, but he couldn’t hurt his aggressive opponent.
Luna hurt Lopez with a right hand to the body just over a minute into the fifth round. Lopez moved away from him enough to recover.
Lopez and Luna traded punches from close distances during the third and fourth rounds, both of which were competitive and entertaining.
Luna bullied Lopez in the first round and landed the more effective punches, but Lopez took control in the second round. Lopez’s straight right hand snapped back Luna’s head with about a minute to go in the second round.
lazboy wrote: ↑08 Sep 2018, 21:25
2nd time seeing Martin fight and he is very poor skill wise. Very poor!
I saw him in person down in Alexandria. He looked decent there, but he was fighting a scrub. He was even fat, and out of shape that night, but he got the job done in 1.
lazboy wrote: ↑08 Sep 2018, 21:25
2nd time seeing Martin fight and he is very poor skill wise. Very poor!
I saw him in person down in Alexandria. He looked decent there, but he was fighting a scrub. He was even fat, and out of shape that night, but he got the job done in 1.
He's getting handled easy tonight though.
Maybe it’s a mental thing then. Or part of. He’s
Not throwing anything hard etc etc.
Martin probably had his best round of the fight in the 7th. Still not sure he won it, but he landed his best shots, and Kownacki slowed down just a tad so I'll give it to him. Not that it'll make any difference. He still needs a KO to win.
Prime example of why Kownacki will never be a World Champion now. He's running out of steam, and losing rounds now. When faced with a better fighter this will be his downfall. All he's gotta do is stand up for another 2 rounds, and he'll win tonight, but better fighters will stop him in the later rounds.
Another one I'd give to Martin. All of these last 3 rounds have been close, but they weren't close before. They're close now though. I'd give it to Martin again.
This has turned into a really great fight down the stretch. I'd give the 10th to Kownacki, but credit to Martin. He was getting his ass kicked early on, but came back to really make a competitive scrap out of this. Good fight.
