An evenly matched bout was only marred by a couple of headbutts, one of which cut Avila in the second round. A series of body shots by Lopez had Avila in all sorts of trouble through the majority of the third stanza.
A counter left hook put Lopez down with seconds remaining in the round; neither man renewed the fight before the bell ended the round.
The slightly shorter Lopez made it an even fight by the sixth with Avila backpedaling. Waiting for his chance to even the playing field, Avila got back into the fight with sparse attacks during the frame. After some clinching and a break called by referee Dan Stell, the victory was all but assured by Avila, as he caught Lopez with a counter left upstairs when the fight renewed itself.
In trouble, Lopez was caught once more with another left to the temple, sending him crashing down to the canvas with Stell calling it a day at 1:09 of the eighth and final round.
Emerging welterweight Alan Sanchez used Miguel Munguia, 26-26-1 (22), as target practice through two rounds en route to winning his 12th fight against two losses and one draw, scoring his sixth stoppage in the co-featured bout.
Straight right hands and left hooks rained down on Munguia from the onset and a series of rights put down an already dropping Munguia in the second round.
After complaining of a rabbit punch, all but ignored by Stell, the fight was allowed to continue. The battering also continued and the helpless Munguia offered no signs of offense or an effective defense. That said, Stell stopped the contest at 1:43 into the frame.
In other results, Filipino super bantamweight southpaw Bruno Escalante moved his record to 6-1-1 (3) by defeating Pablo Cupul, 6-10 (4), in a rare, five-round bout.
Escalante was effective early on, using angles and working quick shots against a game Cupul, who found himself a step behind his opponent during the bout.
Cupul pressured on fairly effectively in the later rounds, although the constant bending and moving by Escalante was a double-edged sword. This allowed him to keep away from the hard shots coming his way but he would not sit down on his punches in order to generate enough pop.
Cupul was nearly down at the end of the fourth but the Mexican coming back in the fifth, nailing the shorter Escalante with head shots which had him holding and in serious trouble for the majority of the round.
At the end of the odd-round bout, the scores were 49-46 (twice) and 48-47, all in favor of Escalante.
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