It was powerful right hooks like this by Juan Manuel Lopez (right) that ended his fight against Sergio Medina in the first round. Photo / Chris Farina-Top Rank


LAS VEGAS – Pay attention when Juan Manuel Lopez fights.

The popular Puerto Rican boxer-puncher, who was featured on the Oscar De La Hoya-Manny Pacquiao undercard, is one of the brightest young talents in the sport, but his fights can end within the blink of an eye. Or the flick of his bone-crunching right hook, as Sergio Medina found out.

Lopez (24-0, with 22 knockouts) retained his WBO 122-pound title with a first-round blowout of the usually durable Argentine. It was Lopez’s third consecutive first-round stoppage. Medina (33-2, 18 KOs), who was dropped three times before referee Joe Cortez ended the slaughter at 1:38 of the round, was never in the fight.

Lopez’s first-round KO was one of three blowouts that made up the televised portion of the De La Hoya-Pacquiao undercard.

Junior welterweight prospect Victor Ortiz (23-1-1, 18 KOs) stopped Jeffrey Resto (22-3, 13 KOs) in the second round in a scheduled 12-round bout. Ortiz dropped Resto twice with straight lefts in the first round, before ending matters in the second with a wicked right hook-left cross combination.

“I thought the fight was going to be longer,” Ortiz said. “I thought he was going to box more, but he couldn’t resist my power.”

Obviously.

Fans who coughed up $54.95 for the live HBO Pay-Per-View broadcast in the U.S. didn’t get much undercard action for their money.

The opening bout of the televised undercard featured middleweight prospect Daniel Jacobs (14-0, 13 KOs), who punished Victor Lares (14-4, three KOs) with his usual array of power punches and stopped the Texan in the second round of their scheduled eight rounder. Lares, like Medina and Resto, was never in the fight.

The opponents of Lopez, Ortiz and Jacobs landed a combined 16 punches, according to CompuBox stats. Resto landed eight total punches, six power shots and two jabs. Lares landed seven total punches, all power shots. Medina, by far the most experienced and respected of the three opponents, landed only one punch. At least it was a power punch.

On the non-televised portion of the undercard, junior welterweight prospect Danny Garcia (10-0, seven KOs) won a one-sided eight-round unanimous decision over tough Mexican journeyman Luis Lugo (10-6-1, five KOs).

A more experienced Mexican journeyman, Jose Beranza, scored an upset unanimous decision over previously unbeaten junior featherweight prospect Jesus Rojas. Beranza (31-14-2, 25 KOs) used footwork and angles to keep Rojas (13-1, 10 KOs) off balance and running into uppercuts.

Former amateur standout Adrian Broner (5-0, five KOs) scored a first-round knock out of Scott Furney (3-7-1, one KO). Roberto Marroquin (5-0, four KOs) stopped Isaac Hidalgo (2-3) in the first round.

In a six-round swingbout, Pacquiao-promoted flyweight Richie Mepranium (15-2-1, three KOs) outpointed Cesar Lopez (20-7, four KOs).