Leo flattens Lopez with KO of year contender to claim 126 title
Homecoming bout was close until ending it with one shot in 10th round
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For Angelo Leo it was the stuff of dreams and for Luis Alberto Lopez it was a downright nightmare.
In a title shot in his hometown, Leo won the IBF featherweight belt with a savage one-punch left-hook knockout in the 10th round that left Lopez flat on his back on the receiving end of a knockout of the year contender in the main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card on Saturday night at Tingley Coliseum in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
While Leo won his second world title — he held the WBO junior featherweight title for six months in 2020 and 2021 — Lopez, who had established himself as the No. 1 fighter in the 126-pound division, saw his hopes of a unification fight with the Rafael Espinoza-Robeisy Ramirez II winner go down the drain as well as the longer-range goal of a big-money fight with Top Rank stablemate and undisputed junior featherweight champion Naoya Inoue.
Leo lives in Las Vegas and had not boxed in Albuquerque since he was a prospect in a six-rounder in 2015, but now he is the latest titleholder from a city that was also home to the late Hall of Famers Bob Foster and Johnny Tapia as well as Danny Romero.
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