Jose Napoles vs. Ernie Lopez (2nd meeting)

Jose Napoles 147 lbs beat Ernie Lopez 147 lbs by KO at 1:36 in round 7 of 15

• Date: 1973-02-28
• Location: Forum, Inglewood, California, USA
• Referee: Dick Young

"Ernie Lopez, Los Angeles, came out boxing and opened a cut over the bridge of Jose Napoles' nose in the 2nd round and another alongside his right eye in the 3rd. Still the veteran from Mexico held the upper hand. In the 7th, Napoles exploded a left hook that put half of the Lopez face to sleep and then came on with two quick uppercuts. Lopez, the challenger, first went up into the air and then flat on his back for a full two minutes - a knockout victim of the Cuban refugee in 1:36 of the 7th round." -Associated Press

• Scorecards - Napoles led on all official scorecards by way of 3-2, 5-0 and 5-1 all for Napoles on the California scoring system.
• Unofficial Long Beach Press Telegram scorecard - 6-1 Napoles

Post fight comments

• "I never saw power like that." -Howie Steindler, Lopez' manager

• "At no time were we concerned. The cuts were superficial. We told Jose just to pick his spots and counter because Lopez was starting to get sloppy and make mistakes." -Angelo Dundee, Napoles' cutman

• "He hit me a good shot. I was bent down and he hit me coming up. I felt good the way things were going. I hit him some pretty good shots to the body, but I couldn't get close enough to him." -Ernie Lopez

Purses

• Napoles - $75,000
• Lopez - $20,000