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Show Salvador Sanchez stops Danny Lopez in 14th The Uintah Basin's Danny Lopez fail-ed fail-ed to regain his World Boxing CouncU featherweight championship title as Salvador Sanchez of Mexico City pocketed a TKO in the 14th round, Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada. Sanchez and Lopez met for the first time on February 2 and Sanchez, who was the challenger, became the champion cham-pion when he won the bout on a TKO in the 13th round. Lopez was the aggressor throughout the bout on Saturday as he backed the champion against the ropes and landed several solid lefts and rights. But Sanchez repeatedly came off the ropes to stun Lopez with right hand shots. Lopez continued to press the attack in the 14th round, but midway through the round Sanchez jolted Lopez' jaw with a jarring right upper cut, which staggered stag-gered the former champion. Sanchez foUowed with a powerful combination which left Lopez dazed in the middle of the ring. Lopez' manager threw in the towel and referee Mills Lane stopped the fight 1:42 into the round. Sanchez, 126, who at 21 is the youngest featherweight champion since wune rep improved nis recora 10 js-i-i with 29 knockouts. Lopez, 28, 126 pounds, fell to 41-5. Each fighter earned $130,000. "From the 10th round on, I was tired," 'remarked Danny "Little Red" Lopez. "From then on I had to fight his fight. He came in and caught me with a couple of real good shots. It was good , ' that it was stopped. I was hurt." All three judges had Sanchez considerably con-siderably ahead on points when the fight was stopped. Lane, who stepped in quickly when it appeared Lopez was defenseless, said he knew Lopez had had enough. "That first right hand just knocked it all out of him," stated Lane. "He just wilted. I let it continue for a few more seconds, but it was obvious ithat he could have been really hurt." Lopez captured the WBC featherweight crown in 1976 with a 15-round victory over David Kotey of South Africa. He successfully defended the crown eight times before losing to Sanchez earlier this year. No more than two rounds were won by , Lopez in the fight as he was repeadtedly jerked by superior counterpunching from Sanchez and a sweeping right that reached his head regularly. Lopez said that he would "play it by ear," as far as retirment goes, he and Beenie Georgino, manager, allowed that they are leaning in that direction. Lopez has been offered an executive position with Five-Star Promotions, the group that promoted the fight, which is headed by Beenie's son Don. Lopez is secure enough now, as he made $1.5 mUlion as pro boxer. "We have no plans for the future right now," said Georgino. "We'll officially decide in a few days. It's his decision." A few times Lopez shook Sanchez with hard combinations, but he was unable to follow them up as the Mexican Mex-ican fighter came back with a flurry of punches to the head, or backed away from the ropes. "He came in with these shots, and there was nothing I could do," said Lopez. |