Juan Manuel Lopez must love fighting at Madison Square Garden. With every punch he throws, cheers echo throughout the room. Last night was no exception. The majority of the crowd was there for their Juanma. And Juanma did not disappoint. He gave the crowd exactly what they paid for.

For the first couple rounds the fight looked close. Steven Luevano was giving Juanma a good fight. He was landing good shots, and he was making Juanma miss. But Juanma turned up the pressure in the third round. He was fighting more aggressively, and Luevano had less and less of a chance to land his shots.

Luevano still had plenty of fight in him in the fourth round. The exchanges between the two were back and forth. However, the fourth round appeared to be the turning point for the fight. At the end of the round, Juanma caught Luevano on the ropes. It was only for a few seconds. Juanma unleashed, and Luevano could not respond. Then the bell rang. At the start of the fifth round, Juanma was backing Luevano around the ring. Luevano was still throwing punches, but he was unable to plant himself long enough to do any damage. He was able to change the momentum for a short time in the middle of the round, but by the end of the round, Juanma was clearly in control again.

In the sixth, Juanma was having little trouble with Luevano. He spent the round backing him around the ring. At the end of the round, Juanma once again backed Luevano on the ropes and unleashed on him. Everything was set for the seventh round. Juanma had spent the entire fight wearing down Luevano. That is what makes Juanma a great fighter. Unlike some fighters who simply throw punches at the head of their opponents, Juanma hits the head and the body. And he is not a one punch fighter. He will throw the jab, the right hook, the uppercut, all of these slowly wearing down his opponent. All of the punches that Juanma had thrown at the body of Luevano were now to pay off. Juanma stunned Luevano with the right, kept throwing, and the final punch to take Luevano down was a left. The fight was over at 2:16 of the seventh round.

Was anyone surprised that Juanma won this fight? Although Luevano had an impressive record coming into this fight, 37 wins, 1 loss, and 1 draw, he only has 15 knockouts in those 37 wins. By contrast, Juanma had 24 knockouts in 27 wins. Juanma clearly was the heavier hitter.

But that was not the only fight of the evening. Yuriorkis Gamboa walked through Rogers Mtagwa in less than two rounds.

While waiting for that fight to begin, the crowd turned the Theater at Madison Square Garden into a huge night club. The DJ was playing club versions of all the hottest songs. People were dancing in the aisles. Puerto Rican flags could be seen waving throughout the place. If you looked hard enough, you could even see a couple Tanzanian flags and a couple Cuban flags. This atmosphere continued right into the Gamboa, Mtagwa fight.

Joe Parella, Mtagwa’s manager, said that Rogers had to come out swinging first if he was going to win. That is exactly what he did. Rogers Mtagwa threw the first punch. For the first minute of the first round, it looked like he might have a chance to make this a competitive fight. But Mtagwa let up. All Gamboa needed was a couple seconds, and he was in control of the fight. He was able to knock down Mtagwa in the first round.

To watch Gamboa and Mtagwa fight, you will see two major differences. Mtagwa never seems balanced. He has fought that way for a long time. The other difference is accuracy. Mtagwa throws fast and hard, but he is not always the most accurate. Gamboa throws hard, fast, and accurate.

Gamboa was in total control of the second round. With every punch, Mtagwa was taking a beating. Mtagwa went down once. He survived the count. Then, Gamboa put him right back down again. Referee Steve Smoger put an end to the fight at 2:35 in the second round.

The crowd was silenced. Now the majority were not there for Mtagwa. They were not even there for Gamboa. The majority of the crowd was there for Juanma. So why should they be silenced? Maybe they knew that these two fights were to set up a fight between Juanma and Gamboa. And maybe they were asking themselves, if Gamboa can take out Mtagwa in two rounds and Juanma almost got knocked out by Mtagwa, does this mean that Gamboa knocks out Juanma?