Steven Luevano retires from boxing

According to a report at 15rounds.com from manager Cameron Dunkin, 29-year-old former featherweight titlist Steven Luevano has decided to retire from boxing, making the decision last night.

Luevano's career record stands at 37-2-1, with 15 wins by stoppage. Born in Los Angeles, he began his professional career on June 17, 2000, with a win at the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens, California. He won the first 29 fights of his career before losing a close 10-round decision in 2005 to Martin Honorio. He rebounded from the loss quickly to begin climbing up the WBO featherweight ladder, including a 2006 win over Cristobal Cruz, and received his first major title shot on July 14, 2007, when he faced Nicky Cook in London for the vacant WBO featherweight title, which had been given up by Juan Manuel Marquez.

Luevano knocked out Cook on the road in the 11th round. After that, he became a regular staple for pay-per-view undercards. In October 2007, he beat Antonio Davis on the Pacquiao-Barrera II show. In his next fight, he dominated Terdsak Jandaeng (Pacquiao-Marquez II), and then he had the best fight of the night on the Pacquiao-David Diaz show in June 2008, drawing with Puerto Rican slugger Mario Santiago. Luevano followed that with a stinker win over Billy Dib on the Pavlik-Hopkins event. His final win came as a DQ-7 in a miserable fight against Bernabe Concepcion in August 2009, after nearly 10 months off. That bout was featured on one of Top Rank's minor pay-per-view events.

In January, he geared up to defend his title for the sixth time, against unbeaten Juan Manuel Lopez, who was moving up from 122 pounds. Lopez dominated the fight and stopped Luevano in the seventh round, the first stoppage loss of Luevano's career. After the fight, HBO's Max Kellerman wondered if Luevano wasn't an old 28 years of age.

After the Lopez fight, Luevano's name all but disappeared from the discussion. He wasn't even rumored for fights, and obviously now we know he was seriously pondering if he should continue his career or not.

The only thing left to do now is wish Steven Luevano a happy retirement and congratulations on a fine career.