Najee Lopez Knocks Out Juan Carrillo After Replay

Najee Lopez preserved his unbeaten record with a ninth-round knockout of Juan Carrillo at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, although the result required the assistance of instant replay and produced one of the more peculiar endings of the year.

Lopez dropped Carrillo with a right hand to the body after 1 min 33 sec of the ninth round. Referee Edward Hernandez Sr initially ruled the punch low, allowing the Colombian time to recover. The contest resumed, and the round was completed, but before the tenth could begin, California State Athletic Commission inspector Jesus Villarreal ordered a replay review.

The footage showed that Lopez’s punch had landed legally. The original ruling was overturned, and Lopez was declared the knockout winner, with the finish officially restored to the moment of the body shot in the ninth.

It was justice in terms of the punch, which landed above the prohibited area and left Carrillo in obvious distress. Whether a contest should be concluded retrospectively after the fighter has recovered and continued is a more complicated question. Boxing has spent years stumbling towards the sensible use of replay and, true to form, arrived by an unusually scenic route.

Both light-heavyweights entered unbeaten, Lopez at 16-0 with 13 stoppages and Carrillo at 15-0 with 11. Their records suggested a contest of considerable menace, but the opening rounds were cautious and untidy rather than destructive.

Lopez attempted to establish the jab, throwing 20 in the first round without landing one. He nevertheless connected with six power punches, while Carrillo landed only three punches altogether. Neither man was willing to commit fully, and the pattern changed little during the second.

Carrillo was the more accurate fighter in the third and fourth, shortening his punches and countering when Lopez stepped forward. The Colombian landed seven of 13 power shots in the fourth, while Lopez struggled to convert his greater activity into clean connections.

The fifth remained competitive, with Carrillo’s accuracy offsetting Lopez’s higher output. Lopez was steadily investing in the body; however, a policy which eventually decided the contest even if it attracted little immediate attention.

Carrillo produced his most accurate round in the sixth, landing eight of 20 punches and six of ten power shots. Lopez managed only three connections from 46 attempts. It was a poor round for the favourite, who was pushing his punches and failing to create angles before attacking.

Lopez improved in the seventh by increasing the pace and taking the initiative. He threw 57 punches, his highest total of the contest, and landed ten. Carrillo remained economical, though his lower output meant he was increasingly dependent on occasional counters.

The eighth was similarly close. Lopez continued moving forward and working downstairs, while Carrillo landed at the higher percentage. Neither had established overwhelming command, and the bout appeared likely to require the judges until Lopez finally found the decisive opening.

The ninth had been Carrillo’s best round with the jab. He landed seven of 22, while Lopez connected with nine punches in total. But numbers ceased to matter when Lopez drove the right hand into the body. Carrillo folded to the canvas and immediately complained that the blow was low. Hernandez accepted the protest, a decision the replay later showed was incorrect.

The final statistics reflected an awkward and closely contested fight. Lopez landed 64 of 394 punches, compared with Carrillo’s 54 from 242. Carrillo was more accurate overall, connecting at 22.3 per cent against Lopez’s 16.2, and led 24-14 in jabs.

Lopez’s decisive advantage came in power punching and body work. He landed 50 power shots to Carrillo’s 30, with 33 of his connections reaching the body. Carrillo landed only 11 body punches.

The victory improved Lopez’s record to 17-0 with 14 stoppages and removed another unbeaten contender from his path. Yet the performance raised as many questions as it answered. Lopez was frequently inaccurate, landed only 14 jabs across nine rounds and allowed Carrillo to control too many exchanges with cleaner counters.

Nevertheless, the final punch was legitimate and would almost certainly have ended the fight had the referee ruled correctly at once. The subsequent review confirmed Lopez as the rightful winner, even if the route to that conclusion required rather more administrative drama than the preceding eight rounds had provided.