Angelo Leo knocked out Luis Alberto Lopez to win the IBF featherweight title

Nothing could hurt him. Everything Angelo Leo threw at Luis Alberto Lopez, it seemed like the IBF featherweight champion got through.

Then, as sometimes happens in boxing, a life-changing punch happened. It came slowly and came to a powerful finish on Lopez's chin, knocking him out cold before his head came off the canvas Saturday night at Tingley Coliseum in Leo's hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Just like that, Leo achieved his dream, winning the IBF featherweight title in his own backyard by knocking out Lopez at 1:16 of the tenth round.

Leo (25-1, 12 knockouts) said he has been training to leave the hook everywhere from the gym to when he looks in the mirror. Entering the fight, Lopez (30-3, 17 KOs) The Ring's No. 1 ranked featherweight and Leo was ranked 10th.

Leo was leading by two judges' cards, 86-85, and one judge was leading Lopez, 86-85, when the match was stopped.

Lopez, who lost for the first time since 2019, was defending his fourth title, which he won in December 2022, while Leo won his fifth fight since defending his WBO junior featherweight title against Stephen Fulton.

Leo felt that Lopez looked down on coming to the fight. Lopez certainly underestimated Leo's power.

Angelo Leo nails Luis Alberto Lopez on the left. Lopez seemed to go with everything Leo came, up to 10 (Photo by Mikey Williams / Top position).

He paid dearly later.

After a solid opening round, Leo landed more shots in the second, starting with a right to the chin of Lopez with 1:39 left in the round. Leo followed with another right, left to the body, and another right to the side of Lopez's head. Leo had the hometown crowd chanting his name, “Leo, Leo, Leo.”

Leo blasted Lopez with two strikes in the last minute of the second, chants of “Leo” drawing the background of his charges. It was a very strong round for Leo, who landed 24 of 49 punches, including 11 body shots in the round.

Lopez tried to use his awkward, more open style to set Leo off balance. With 1:49 left in the third, Lopez took Leo's head back with a right uppercut. Leo countered Lopez with a right to the face with 1:20 left.

As soon as the fourth opening bell rang, Leo pressed Lopez quickly. Lopez seemed to go through everything Leo threw, standing firm in the pocket. With 26 seconds left in the fourth, Leo shook his head as Lopez connected with a quick combination. Leo was trying to win with volume, Lopez was trying to win with power shots.

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There were a few shots on the line in the fourth where Lopez tried to catch the eye of referee Ernie Sharif.

As the fifth round wore on, Lopez sat patiently in the pocket and tried to catch Leo as he approached. Lopez's right uppercut was particularly effective. With 25 seconds left in the fifth, Lopez threw a right to Leo's head. Lopez landed another overhand right as the round closed.

Showing no respect for Leo's strength, Lopez went down with the home opponent one shot at a time. He had Leo for support—and thought. Leo got one good shot, headed back to Lopez's head with a minute left in the sixth.

Sixth, Leo outshot Lopez, 128/318 (40%) to 85/397 (21%). What the punch stats don't reveal, however, is how much harder Lopez's shot was compared to Leo's.

With 2:13 left in the seventh, Lopez again tried to appeal to Sharif for some low blows, when Leo left and hit Lopez in the groin. Lopez went back and just stopped fighting. He looked towards Shafir, and hit his belt to the right, when Leo kept punching.

Leo began to show a cut under his right eye. He held up well under Lopez's power shots—and appeared to win in seven.

In the first 30 seconds of the eighth, Sharif warned Leo, “Don't do that, keep it up.”

Leo relied on the homerun punch. Leo kept chopping at Lopez, as Shafir seemed to lose control of the fight. He was slow to enter between the combatants to break them up and drank heavily while warning them.

With 1:38 left in the ninth, Lopez scored on an inside right. At this time, Lopez had absolutely no respect for anything Leo tried. He walked in a straight line to the opposition, stalking Leo.

It could be a big mistake that Lopez will pay for by emphasizing in the next round.

Between the ninth and the 10th, Lopez was told by his corner, “You can't rely on the lawyer, you're on his (Leo's) side, okay?”

Lopez was also told to create some distance, to create space to connect with the uppercutters.

Then, just after the break with 1:58 left in the 10, Leo, on the outside, unleashed a left hook that caught Lopez right in the chin and knocked him out. The punch was dull. It emphasizes. Fireworks. Leo looked down at the fallen Lopez, enjoying his punishing blow as he left. Sharif stood over Lopez's count, while ringside officials began pouring into the ring before Sharif finished the count.

In the co-feature, between undefeated junior welterweights Lindolfo Delgado and Bryan Flores, Delgado won by split 10-round decisions of 95-93 and 96-92, pulling out one card in favor of Flores, 96-92.

Delgado (21-0, 15 KOs) won thanks to 10-8 rounds, one in the third, coming out of the contest, and in the seventh, coming out of a point draw with low blows from Flores.

Flores (26-1-1, 15 KOs) outshot Delgado, 104 to 100, though Delgado connected at a higher percentage, 100/354 (28%) to Flores' 104/471 (22%) .

In the opening round, Flores was the most aggressive, backing Delgado, Mexico's 2016 Olympian. Delgado began to pick up his rhythm in the third, catching Flores with a stick to the side of the head that sent him down with 1:59 left in the round. It marked the seventh time in Flores' career that he has been knocked down.

Lindolfo Delgado remains undefeated with a split decision, 10-round victory over Bryan Flores (Photo by Mikey WIlliams/Top Position)

In the first seconds of the fourth, Flores surprised Delgado on the right side. The blow in the third round seemed to wake up Flores, who had turned forward as he had done in the first two rounds. With :48 seconds left in the fourth, Flores plows Delgado with a sweeping right behind Delgado's left ear. Delgado couldn't get out of the way of Flores' rights.

In the first minute of the sixth, Flores got a one-two on Delgado's head. Midway through the round, Delgado attacked the body, forcing Flores to back down.

Presumably sensing he was behind, Delgado came on for Flores to start the seventh. About 40 seconds later, it was Delgado hitting Flores with lead rights, but referee Robert Velez felt Flores was landing some low blows and dropped the point with 1:46 left in the round. Delgado's seventh straight goal, with a disqualification, brought him back into contention.

With 1:23 left in the eighth, Flores planted Delgado with a big left that hit Delgado square in the face. Each fighter can get out of the other's way. Flores tagged Delgado with a left uppercut in the last minute of the ninth, which Flores countered with a right to the head. The soldiers were two centimeters apart, their foreheads seemed to be together.

As the 10th opened, the battle could go either way. With 2:21 left in the fight, Flores crushed Delgado with a right. With 1:23 left, Delgado took Flores' head back with a right uppercut. The two finished the fight as if they had won the whole fight, throwing themselves at each other.

Vito Mielnicki Jr.'s Top Rank started strong with a second round victory over Laszlo Toth (Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Position)

On the undercard, Albuquerque native Matthew Griego (15-0, 10 KOs) defeated newcomer Gilberto Mendoza (23-19-4, 11 KOs) for the second time, winning an eight-round unanimous decision at flyweight. Griego defeated Mendoza by a six-round unanimous decision in June 2022.

Junior middleweight Vito Mielnicki Jr. (19-1, 13 KOs) made an impactful Top Rank debut with a second-round disqualification victory at 1:39 over Laszlo Toth (32-9-2, 20 KOs), when Toth's corner went in. 10-rounder set-up ring.

Featherweight Albert Gonzalez (10-0, 6 KOs) stopped Damian Alcala (8-5, 2 KOs) at 2:51 of the third round in a scheduled six-rounder.

Lightweight Alan Garcia (14-0, 11 KOs) remained undefeated by stopping Maickol Lopez Villagrana (16-6, 8 KOs) at 2:34 of the third round of a scheduled eight-round bout.

In a six-round bantamweight scheduled, Steven Navarro (3-0, 2 KOs) stopped Israel Camacho (2-12) with a left hook to the body at 2:14 of the first round. In the first fight of the show, featherweight Arnold Khegai (22-1-1, 14 KOs) stopped Belmar Preciado (22-8-1, 15 KOs) at the end of the ninth round of a scheduled 10-round bout.

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sports writer who has worked for Ring Magazine/RingTV.com since October 1997 and is president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.

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