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Both fighters entered the ring in perfect shape. The opening round was fairly even until a Lukmingkwan brutal left hook spun the head of Lopez. The Mexican took the punch well though and showed no signs of being hurt by Lukmingkwan’s Sunday bomb.
Lopez continued his forward attack in the 2nd, showing no concern for the punching power of Lukmingkwan. The exchanges were fierce, but Lopez appeared to have the upper hand and had the Thai fighter hanging on at one point.
Less action in the 3rd, which seemed to favor Lukmingkwan. Lopez was less aggressive in the 4th and it led to him taking far less punches than he had in the previous rounds. The 5th round seemed to favor Lukmingkwan, but you couldn’t tell by the cheering of the crowd at “Fronton Mexico”, who let out a yell anytime Lopez threw a blow regardless of if it landed or missed. After the completion of 5 rounds, the score card of pay per view analyst Al Bernstein read 48-47 Lopez. Punchstat had it almost dead even for punches landed at 121 for Lopez to 120 for Lukmingkwan.
Lopez took the fight back to the inside in the 6th and 7th and was gradually beginning to wear the Thai fighter down. In the 8th, at the urging of his trainer Nacho Berinstein, Lopez sat down on his punches and was digging heavy blows to the body of Lukmingkwan. Early in the 8th a crushing right hurt Lukmingkwan, which caused him to hold and move for the remainder of the round.
There were plenty of excellent exchanges in the 9th, but Lopez was taking Lukmingkwan’s blows much better than the Thai was taking Lopez’. Lukmingkwan returned to his corner breathing heavily with his mouth open and head down.
Both fighters came out for the 10th having essentially been told by their trainer during the rest period to knock the other guy out because he was exhausted and ready to go. After landing a nice shot, but then being hit by a sharp combination, Lukmingkwan plopped to the canvas!
Referee, Stanley Christodoulou, began the count and at 6 Lukmingkwan lurched to his feet, but then fell again to the canvas! Christodoulou correctly resumed his count at 7. At “9” Lukimingkwan staggered to his feet, but the ending the paying crowd had been looking forward to now only seemed to be moments away. Lopez continued to pound both the head and body of Lukmingkwan, who was now resting on the ropes and not throwing punches in return. To the delight of the crowd, Christodoulou stepped in and stopped the fight!
In Spanish the ring announcer shouted to the world, “Your winner by TKO at 2:53 of the 10th round, still undefeated and now the recognized UNDISPUTED STRAW WEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD…….RICARDO 'El Finito' LOPEZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!
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