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Marcelino Lopez, Jonathan Barros score big wins in Argentina

Fighters Network
15
Mar
Marcelino Lopez (R) watches as the referee delivers a count to Sergio Escobar, who would be defeated by eighth-round knockout. Photo by Diego Ordonez/Foto Club Junin.

Marcelino Lopez (R) watches as the referee delivers a count to Sergio Escobar, who would be defeated by eighth-round knockout. Photo by Diego Ordonez/Foto Club Junin.

On Friday night in Buenos Aires, South American junior welterweight champ Marcelino “Nino” Lopez, recently signed by Golden Boy Promotions, kept his regional crown in a successful first defense against Sergio Escobar with a TKO in the 8th round.

Lopez (31-1-1, 16 knockouts) dominated Escobar with a superb performance in his fourth fight against the man responsible for the lone draw in his record. Lopez controlled the fight with authority and power, and kept landing his left hook to the body at will, finally dropping Escobar (27-26-3, 12 KOs) in the seventh round and again in the eighth to force the stoppage when Escobar’s corner threw in the towel. Escobar had also given Lopez two very tough fights that ended in majority decisions.

With the victory, Lopez is now 2-0 since his lone loss to Pablo Barboza (a majority decision with a one-point difference in two cards and a draw in the other one) and positions himself for a possible undercard bout in the upcoming Matthysse-Provodnikov in Verona, New York, on April 18.

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In Las Parejas, Argentina, former WBA “regular” featherweight titlist Jonathan Barros (39-4-1, 22 KOs) scored a solid TKO victory in the 6th round against former Argentine lightweight champion Sergio “Zurdo” Gonz├ílez (27-18-4, 11 KOs) in a scheduled 10-rounder that took place on Saturday night at the local Club Sportivo Las Parejas.

Barros started out with a bang, dropping Gonzalez in the second and third rounds, but then allowed his foe to take the initiative for the following two rounds. In the sixth round, however, Barros finally made better use of his longer reach and better overall skills to corner and pummel Gonzalez into submission with a barrage of punches.

With the victory, Barros notched his fifth straight victory on his comeback trail since back-to-back losses to Mikey Garcia and Juan Carlos Salgado in 2012 after he had lost his title to Celestino Caballero in a rematch a year earlier.

 

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