Juan Manuel Lopez knocks out Wilfredo Vazquez Jr, brawls with cornerman

For those that missed it live last night, myself included, there was a pretty wild scrap between Puerto Rican veterans Juan Manuel Lopez (35-5, 32 KOs) and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. (24-7-1, 19 KOs).

It was a grueling battle between two fighters who had gotten pretty nasty with one another in the build up to their fight, with Vazquez even saying that Lopez repulsed him just days before the fight. The two even nearly came to blows at the final presser but finally got the chance to settle their disdain for one another once the opening bell rang.

The fight itself was a close battle, with both fighters going right at it for as long as it would last. Lopez struggled a bit early, but started coming on late which spelled bad news for Vazquez.

The ending came in the 11th round in rather dramatic fashion when Lopez stunned Vazquez with his patented left hand, and then hurt him badly with another one. At that point he left both hands fly until Vazquez crumbled and the referee immediately waved off the fight.

But if you think that’s where the fight ended, you’d be mistaken. The crowd got into an uproar, throwing things around the ring, and one of Vazquez’s cornermen stepped between the ropes to finish off what Vazquez has started, getting into a barehanded exchange with Lopez and landing pretty flush at least a couple of times. It was a pretty wild and dangerous moment, and it took a couple minutes for officials to regain complete control of the fracas and the raucous crowd. Here’s a short video clip of the ending.

But after the uproar, Lopez and Vazquez were seen with their arms around each other, displaying their mutual respect. At the time of the stoppage, ESPN reports that two of the official judges had Lopez up on the scorecards 96-94, and one having it even at 95 apiece.

Lopez said after the fight that he wants to continue on fighting, mentioning Abner Mares and Orlando Salido as people he’d like to target.