Luis Alberto Lopez successfully retained his world title against Reiya Abe live from Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York on Saturday, March 2. The pair squared off in the co-feature on the card headlined by Otabek Kholmatov vs Raymond Ford.
The scheduled for 12 rounds bout didn’t go the full distance. Referee Mark Nelson stopped the fight at 39 seconds into the eighth round following a flurry of punches from the champion.
With the victory by TKO, Luis Alberto Lopez made the third successful defense of his IBF featherweight belt. In addition, Mexico’s 30-year-old improved to 30-2, 17 KOs.
Reiya Abe dropped to 25-4-1, 10 KOs. The 30-year-old southpaw of Japan failed his first attempt to become champion, as well as the U.S. and international debut.
“I turned and looked at my family, my baby, my wife and my mom and dad, and that was the key to my motivation,” Lopez said post-win. “I knew I had to finish the fight.”
“Abe was a warrior. He was able to continue with his eye shut. He continued fighting with a lot of heart. We know that Japanese fighters have a lot of heart. But I also have a lot of hunger to continue being a world champion, and I had to show that.”
“Like I have been saying, it would be great for me to unify. But I would also like to have a fight at 130 pounds. If they put me in against the winner of Oscar Valdez and Liam Wilson, that would be stupendous.”
Get Kholmatov vs Ford full fight card results.