Lopez Beats Duran

On Friday night, David Lopez left the Diamond Center ring with cuts on his face and a nasty shiner on his right eye, but still captured his 14th straight win.

Facing perhaps his toughest opponent in three years, Lopez (38-12, 23 KO) let his hands go at the right times to edge hard-nosed Ossie Duran (23-7-2, 9 KO) in an action-packed main event.

Despite his status as one of the middleweight division’s hottest fighters, Golden Boy Promotions had a difficult time securing a high-profile fight for Lopez. Friday was his first bout at the junior middleweight divison (154 pounds), and Lopez now hopes to find himself in line for a world title shot in the very near future.

With Brian Kenny and Teddy Atlas calling the fight from ringside for ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights,” Lopez showed a nationwide audience what his Southern Arizona and Mexico fan-base already knew — despite his unimpressive overall record, Lopez is one tough customer.

Many of the rounds were too close to call. It took Lopez a few minutes to adjust to Duran’s speed and top-notch defensive ability, but the busier Lopez seemed to land one or two meaningful shots near the end of each round to slightly tilt the balance of the fight in his favor.

“Duran is a counterpuncher and he’s much faster than me,” Lopez said through his interpreter, manager Javier Zapata. “Guys in this division are faster and they move a little different. I was a little tight at the beginning and Duran is a really tough fighter.”

Even though Lopez weighed in six pounds lighter than usual, he stepped into the ring at the same weight he always does — 172 pounds. He said he felt just as strong as he ever has, if not stronger.

The Golden Boy himself, Oscar De La Hoya, watched the bout from the VIP section and said Lopez might have a new home at this weight class.

“We’d like to keep him at 154 and find the right fights for him,” De La Hoya said. “He’ll be ready to face the top guys in this division after two or three fights.”

Zapata said Lopez feels rested and healthy after the six-month layoff and plans to take him to Los Angeles and have him spar with quicker, smaller fighters to prepare him for what he’ll see at the upper tier of this division.

“We grade David’s performance an eight out of 10,” Zapata said. “We feel like we’re ready for any of the guys ahead of him on these lists — Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Alfredo Angulo, Ricardo Mayorga, anyone.”

Duran feels robbed

Duran, on the other hand, felt like the judges weren’t watching the same fight. He believed his air-tight defense was strong enough to give him the decision.

“I won the fight, no doubt about it,” Duran said. “Boxing is about tricks and techniques. I just don’t know what judges see nowadays.”

Duran’s cornerman, Aroz Gist, told his fighter that he needed to be careful during this bout. He said the pro-Lopez crowd would cheer for anything Lopez did, so it would be a bad idea to make this a close fight.

“That crowd was really quiet most of the night,” Gist said.

Duran’s advisor, Philip Shevack, was the most animated member of the group, stating that Duran — a native of Ghana who lives in Patterson, N.J. — put on an exhibition of superb craftsmanship and had the fight taken away from him.

“This place is [Lopez’s] living room,” Shevack said. “Ossie has never had a hometown to fight out of. What Lopez’s handlers are doing to him now might benefit him in the short term, but once he ventures out of his living room, he’s in for a rude awakening. Ossie doesn’t deserve to be treated like this.”

It was Duran’s contention that Lopez’s business was ineffective aggression. According to Duran’s team, many of Lopez’s punches connected with the elbows, forearms and gloves and didn’t do any direct damage. Meanwhile, Duran’s jab consistently found the mark against Lopez.

Lopez and Zapata said the horrible bruise around his right eye was caused by an accidental head butt — which tends to happen often when a southpaw like Lopez fights a conventional fighter — but Duran and Gist said there was no headbutt.

“Lopez can’t go to a party tonight,” Duran said. “Look at me, I’m just as clean as I was when I walked in there. Lopez was all bruised up. That should tell you all you need to know.”

However, the judges saw Lopez initiating most of the exchanges and landing enough clean shots to steal many of the very close rounds.

With 14 straight wins under his belt, Lopez hopes he won’t have to wait much longer for a bigger, more meaningful bout at any weight class.

“At first glance, you see the 12 losses and say [he can’t compete for a title],” said Atlas after the telecast. “But there are no monsters [in the 154-pound class]. If Lopez is having a good night, he can beat any of these guys.”