Paolo Rosi vs. Joey Lopes (1st meeting)

Paolo Rosi 138 lbs beat Joey Lopes 134 lbs by UD in round 10 of 10

• Date: 1956-07-06
• Location: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, USA
• Referee: Al Berl 7-5
• Judge: Bill Recht 7-3
• Judge: Joe Agnello 6-4

"Paolo Rosi from Italy showed Friday night why big-time lightweights refuse to fight him by hammering out an unanimous upset 10 round decision over Joey Lopes of Sacramento, who was on his knees at the final bell. Rosi, who recently moved to New York, smashed Lopes to his knees with a right to the chin just before the bell rang to end their TV-Radio fight before 1,200 fans in MSG. California Joey tried to slow up Rosi with a body attack and he succeeded at times; but Rosi was traveling at full steam in the last round. Lopes' trip to the canvas just before the final bell was the only knockdown of the fight, but he was knocked back on to his heels several times during the excellent scrap." -United Press

• Unofficial UP scorecard - 6-3-1 Rosi
• Lopes was penalized the 8th round on a foul due to two low left hooks.
• Referee Al Berl had it 5-5 in rounds, but with supplemental points his score became 7-5 for Rosi.
• So impressed with Rosi was Garden matchmaker Bill Brown, that he announced after the bout that he would be matching Rosi with Larry Boardman on August 24th or 31st in the Garden. However, the bout failed to materialize.