Last night's fights in Puerto Rico went pretty much as expected, with the home fighters winning across the board, and without much trouble.
In the featherweight main event, Juan Manuel Lopez bounced back from his first loss with an easy, two-round win over talented but very chinny Mike Oliver. Oliver got the first big crack in, whacking Lopez (31-1, 28 KO) with a big right hook and showing his incredible hand speed. But Lopez just walked right through it all, and in the same opening frame, he dropped Oliver with a left hand on the button, and then just near the end of the round, put him on the canvas again. Oliver looked to his corner and shook his head, seemingly asking them to call off the fight, but he made it to his feet at the count of nine and got out of the round.
Between the rounds, Oliver said to trainer John Scully, "I'm hurt right now. I'm hurt. I'm trying, man." Commentator Bob Sheridan noted that "nobody expected this," but it was frankly what pretty much everyone expected, and the second round went no differently, except that Oliver looked to avoid contact as much as he could. He had a few wild, home run, prayer-like swings at Lopez, but he wasn't close to getting into it, and he was fighting scared, falling all over the ring to keep Lopez off of him.
At 2:32 of the second round, Oliver was waved off after a third knockdown. None of the knockdowns were really big, but Oliver just doesn't take shots well at all, and Lopez barely had to break a sweat in this one. He probably exerted more energy wrestling with Oliver than anything, but it's a bounce-back win that went the way it was supposed to, and now Lopez will look forward to a 2012 rematch with Orlando Salido, if they can actually lock it down. Oliver falls to 25-3 (8 KO).
In super featherweight action, Roman "Rocky" Martinez got back in the ring for the first time in just over a year, also coming back from his first pro loss to Ricky Burns, and had little trouble whatsoever with Daniel Attah. In the first round, Martinez rocked Attah a little bit, but didn't press much and certainly didn't go for the kill. Attah was game and ready to fight, but Martinez was operating at a laid-back pace and waiting for his chances, perhaps learning a little something from overdoing it against Burns.
In the third, the heads came together pretty hard, and Attah complained immediately, but with the referee not stepping in, Martinez cracked him to the body and scored a knockdown with Attah bent over the ropes, being held up. Attah (26-8-1, 9 KO) held his own pretty well overall, but didn't have the power to discourage Martinez, and "Rocky" just didn't fight as foolishly as he did against Burns.
The sixth round saw the finish, as Martinez (25-1-1, 16 KO) dropped Attah hard with a right hand. Attah made it to his feet, but Martinez closed the show moments later, winging bombs and forcing referee Ismael Quinones Falu to stop the fight at 1:50.
Also on the undercard: Jonathan Oquendo (22-2, 15 KO) knocked out Jose Luis Araiza (29-5, 20 KO) in the second round of a super bantamweight fight. 22-year-old lightweight prospect Luis Joel Gonzalez improved to 9-0-1 (5 KO) with a six-round decision win over Edward Valdez (5-8-2, 3 KO).