Lopez Remains Undefeated in Atlantic City

By Jason Pribila: On Friday Night Adam Lopez (15-0, 7KO) built an early lead en route to a unanimous decision over Mario Munoz (16-1-1, 10KO) in front of a sparse crowd inside the Theater of Atlantic City’s Boardwalk hall. The bout headlined the four televised fights that were broadcasted nationally as part of Showtime’s: Shobox Series.

Lopez, a bantamweight prospect from San Antonio, TX bullied Munoz early on as he piled up points on the judges’ scorecards.

Karma seemed to enter the ring during the sixth of ten scheduled rounds. After Lopez landed a vicious low blow that sent Munoz to the canvas in round five, it was Lopez who was forced to fight thru adversity when his right eye began to rapidly swell due to what seemed to be an accidental thumb to the eye.

Munoz responded by fighting his most aggressive round of the fight. He avoided the shut-out on my card by winning rounds six and seven.

That would be as close as Munoz would get on the scorecards. Lopez regained control in round eight and his work down the stretch inspired the judges to actually turn in cards that reflected the action in the Ring.

All three judges ruled in favor of Lopez by scores of 97-93, and 98-92 (twice).

Ronald Ellis (12-0-1, 10KO) and Jerry Odom (13-2-1, 12 KO) fought to a majority DRAW in a battle of super middleweights. Ellis entered the ring looking to use the ShoBox stage to make a name for himself, while Odom was looking to rebound after being stopped in his last fight.

Despite each fighter promising to box, they decided to trade during most of the first six minutes. Ellis then found a home for a right hand that suddenly could not miss. Odom was wobbled, and Ellis briefly appeared to be on his way to a stoppage.

In round four, for no apparent reason, Ellis turned southpaw. At that point, Ellis did a lot of taunting and showboating; but he seemed to forget about landing punches and scoring. Odom steadied himself, focused his attack on Ellis’ body, as he landed more punches down the stretch.

The score of 78-74 for Ellis was overruled by the score of 76-76 (twice).

No one is ever happy with a Draw, but in this case I feel as if Odom earned his, while Ellis simply gave away a win. Hopefully this will be a lesson to the young fighter that he should never leave his fate in the hands of the judges. As hard as he tried to impress a nationwide audience, the official verdict = “more sizzle than steak”.

In the televised opener we saw super middleweight John Magda (11-0-1, 7 KO) benefit from the fight being scored by two judges who should have to buy a ticket to be anywhere near a ring again. “Busy” Christopher Brooker started fast and outworked Magda down the stretch, only to have to settle for a DRAW.

Based on amateur experience and technique, Magda entered the ring as the favorite despite not fighting for eight months. Brooker, on the other hand, would be fighting for the ninth time since turning pro on February 21, 2015.

Brooker began fast and scored often behind his jab and looping right hands. If in fact Magda was rusty, Brooker seemed focused on knocking it off.

Magda seemed to find his range in the second round. He stood in the pocket and successfully countered his often off-balanced foe.

Brooker regained control in the fourth round and never looked back. Despite Magda’s corner pleading with him, he faded down the stretch and seemed to concede defeat by raising Brooker’s hand at the closing bell.

Despite what should have been an easy fight to score there was a delay in handing in the scorecards. When James Kinney’s score of 77-74 for Kinney was read it was apparent that Brooker would have needed a knockout to win. The final scores of 78-74 Brooker and 76-76 made the DRAW official.

O’Shanique Foster (10-1, 7 KO) dominated Lavisas Williams (8-1-1, 3KO) before the referee stopped the bout 52 seconds into Round 7. Foster simply stayed In the pocket and dominated Williams with his quickness. He dropped the stationary Williams four times by simply landing punches that Williams did not seem to see coming.

Jason Pribila is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He could be reached for questions or comments at pribs2000@gmail.com