JUAN MANUEL LOPEZ W12 ROGERS MTAGWA

There were two big surprises — each in its own way — this past weekend.

Jorge Linares getting knocked out in 73 seconds in Tokyo was the first. No one saw that coming, probably not even his opponent, Juan Carlos Salgado.

The other was Rogers Mtagwa’s astonishing performance in battling Juan Manuel Lopez down to the wire in Saturday’s Latin Fury 12 main event.

I think that most people expected Puerto Rico’s rising star to hammer his Tanzanian-born opponent into defeat well inside the distance. Instead, Lopez was on his bike and in full survival mode in a dramatic last round.

I did note in the preview that Mtagwa deserved this big fight after a career in which he has given fans one action-packed fight after another, but I never dreamed he would be this deserving.

This compelling contest, for Lopez’s WBO 122-pound title, was, as MC Michael Buffer observed, “one of the greatest fights in many a year”. Lopez fully deserved the unanimous decision but he was cut, somewhat banged-up and desperately tired in the final stages.

The southpaw firepower that had caused so many opponents to fall — or at least back off — was failing to deter the game, resilient and relentless Philadelphia-domiciled African. Lopez might have been saved by the bell when a right hand wobbled him in the waning moments of the 11th and in the 12th he was casting anxious glances at the big-screen clock as he backpedalled, grabbed and managed to get through the most perilous passage of his career.

I can’t say enough about Mtagwa’s amazingly determined effort. He took some heavy hits as Lopez’s black Reyes gloves bounced off his head and chin, but he kept coming forward, and his big, winging right hands and left hooks were a constant source of, at first, discomfort, then downright danger, for Lopez.

As Steve Farhood noted in the PPV commentary, for the first time in his career Lopez was hitting an opponent and nothing was happening. Perhaps Lopez was a bit drained at the weight, as is now being suggested, but, still, some of those left hands and right hooks from his southpaw style would surely have seen off a lot of 122-pounders — but not Mtagwa. It was if Mtagwa was becoming increasingly inured to taking punches as the rounds went by, so that, by the later rounds, nothing was going to stop him.

The fight was a gruelling learning experience for Lopez, while Mtagwa will surely be rewarded with another big fight after this magnificent display of unflagging tenacity.

Then we have the shocker in Tokyo.

Unexpected outcomes are a large part of boxing's appeal. Usually, the big favourites win, often in the manner predicted. Not always, though.

The undefeated junior lightweight champ Jorge Linares had just signed a promotional deal with Golden Boy Promotions. He seemed to be on the brink of becoming a star in the States as well as in Japan, where the Venezuelan is promoted by Akihiko Honda’s Teiken outfit.

Although Juan Carlos Salgado was unbeaten and clearly a useful fighter, one who can box a bit and bang a bit, he had not seemed to be a major threat. He was a respectable challenger but one that Linares should have beaten if the Venezuelan Nino de Oro really was the new golden boy.

The fight was over before it really got started. Many of you will have seen the video footage of Salgado landing a left hook around the side of Linares’s guard. It was over, just like that, because even though Linares got up he was gone, and it took just one quick burst of punches from Salgado to finish the job. Immediately one thought of Amir Khan getting blown out in 54 seconds by Breidis Prescott just 13 months earlier in Manchester. This fight was eerily similar, with the unbeaten favourite going down twice in rapid succession — Linares even crumpled in a corner the way that Khan did when falling the second time against Prescott.

I wouldn’t say that what happened to Linares was an accident — Salgado threw a well-timed hook and it landed on the Venezuelan boxer’s right temple, the sort of shot that robs a fighter of his equilibrium. Linares can come back from this, just as Khan has done, and others such as Masamori Tokuyama, who was twice floored in a first-round stunner against old rival Katsushige Kawashima but gained revenge in their 115-pound title rubber match.

There hadn’t been any real warning signs that this was going to happen to Linares. He was rattled a bit in the opening round by Gamaliel Diaz, and he had a couple of somewhat shaky — though not anxious — moments against a Whyber Garcia who was aggressive and inspired in front of a Panamanian crowd, but never did Linares have what I call a “could go” look about him.

First-round finishes can be misleading because a boxer can get caught when he isn’t mentally prepared to get hit. Sometimes fighters can rally to win after an early blast but often they can’t. Linares couldn’t, but I believe he will get over this and become a champion again.

Fights such as the ones on the weekend are why, after so many years, my enthusiasm for boxing remains largely undimmed. One can spend years as a student of the sport and still be confounded by what happens when two fighters get in the ring — occasionally frustrating but endlessly fascinating.