JUAN MANUEL LOPEZ vs OLIVER LONTCHI

Juan Manuel Lopez, looking every inch the next Puerto Rican superstar, headlines Top Rank’s Latin Fury 9 PPV show at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on Saturday and fans will be looking forward to another power-punching display from the undefeated southpaw.

In his last appearance at Boardwalk Hall, in June of last year, Lopez was electrifying as he knocked out Mexican slugger Daniel Ponce De Leon in one dramatic round. Saturday’s junior featherweight title defence against unbeaten challenger Oliver Lontchi should go longer than that. How much longer will depend on whether Lopez comes out banging from the first bell or whether he decides to move and box for a while — and, of course, on how well Lontchi can take Lopez’s punches.

Lontchi, originally from Cameroon in Africa, but now living in Montreal, is similar in style to his countryman and fellow-Montreal resident Herman Ngoudjo. He isn’t an especially hard hitter but he moves well, jabs with authority, has a tight defence and likes to punch to the body with both hands.

In his last fight, Lontchi scored an impressive win when dropping the usually resilient Cecilio Santos for the full count with a left hook to the body, and in his last fight before this he took out another Mexican fighter, Ruben Estanislao, with a body shot, this time ending the bout with a straight right hand through the middle. So Lontchi is in fine form heading into by far the biggest and most dangerous fight of his career.

If Lontchi is to stand any chance at all, though, he will have to box and punch at a level higher than anything his has shown before. Lopez has stopped his last 13 opponents and three of his last four wins were first-round knockouts. “JuanMa” can’t always close the show in sudden fashion, though, and in his last fight he needed nine rounds to pound the resistance out of the game and tough veteran Gerry Penalosa.

I very much doubt if Lopez will blow out Lontchi in a round or two, but there seems little likelihood of this being a long fight. Lopez is likely to punch too hard, and to be too strong, for Lontchi to be able to keep in the fight for very many rounds.

Lontchi has nothing to lose, and I am confident that he will give a resolute performance, but I don’t believe he can outbox Lopez and he certainly can’t outpunch him. Lontchi might be able score some points with his jabs and combinations but I believe that Lopez will be the fighter doing the damage.

It might take Lopez several rounds to break through Lontchi’s defences, but once he does he will most likely start to overwhelm his opponent. The oddsmakers have set an over/under of 5.5 rounds, which looks exactly right because I see this fight ending in the fifth or sixth, with a game Lontchi finally caving in under Lopez’s firepower.