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Lopez Picks Lamptey Apart In Last
Thompson Boxing Promotions Event
By Barbara Pinnella
Photos: Chris Suchánek
In this Path to Glory series finale called One Last
Time, we witnessed the last show of Thompson Boxing
Promotions. Founded by the late Ken Thompson, this
evenings’ show put the cap on 23 years of putting on
fights and promoting fighters. It was a bittersweet and
emotional night for many. More about that later, first
the fights.
Welterweights were featured in the main event of the
evening as Louie Lopez (14-2-1, 5 KOs) stood across the
ring from Benjamin Lamptey (13-12, 9, 2 KOs). This fight
was scheduled for eight rounds. Lopez came out lightning
fast for the opening round, demonstrating his quick
hands and good use of the jab. He showed a bit of body
work as well. Good first round for Louie.
Talk about punches in bunches, in the second round Lopez
was landing six, seven, and eight shots in a row. Head,
body, uppercuts; he was showing everything he had. The
attack continued in the third, and body shots put
Lamptey down very early in the third. He made it up at
the eight count, but Louie went right back to work and
more body shots finished Benjamin off. The fight ended
at 1:22 of round three.
The co-main event was scheduled for eight rounds and saw
super featherweights George Acosta (16-1, 3 KOs) taking
on Edy Valencia Mercado (20-12-6, 7 KOs). We saw a
decent first round, with. Acosta definitely landed more
punches. Mercado would wind up and throw, but more often
than not he would miss and throw himself off balance.
Acosta was displaying a lot of skill. He showed quick
hands that found their target often, had good body work,
and was able to avoid most of what Mercado tried to send
his way.
Just before the bell to end the fourth round, Acosta
landed a hard right hand, dropping Mercado. Because of
that timing, Edy made it out of the round. George
continued to have the upper hand in the fifth round. His
jab was working well, as were his power shots. But
Mercado had taken a beating along the way. He could not
continue, and the fight was stopped before the start of
round six.
Unfortunately, we were informed today that Mercado was
in an Ontario hospital fighting for his life after the
fight with Acosta. The danger is always there; you don’t
play boxing. As of this writing there is no further
update, but a prayer couldn’t hurt.
Super middleweights were next, as Nelson Oliva (8-0, 7
KOs) faced off against Jeremaine Whittington (2-2, 1
KO). This bout was scheduled for four rounds. The first
round produced a very slow start, especially when you
consider the fight is only four rounds. All that changed
in the opening seconds of round two, as Oliva dropped
Whittington with a body shot.
Jeremaine got up at the eight count and tried to soldier
on, but was dropped again. When he went down a third
time, thanks to both body and head blows, referee Ray
Corona stopped the bout at 1:57 of that second round.
Oliva remained undefeated.
In a four round welterweight fight, Kevin Salgado (3-1,
1 KO) took on Izaiah Vargas (1-7, 1 KO). The fight was
over quickly, as Salgado first dropped Vargas with a
slick body shot, and when Izaiah elected to continue, he
just pummeled Vargas with a barrage of head and body
shots. The referee put an end to the fight at 2:08 of
the first round.
The opener saw Esteban Munoz (7-3, 4 KOs) going up
against Nelson Morales (4-8, 1 KO). This fight was to go
a scheduled six rounds in the welterweight division. The
first round didn’t produce much until the 10 second
warning, when Munoz landed a couple of shots. But he
came out firing in the second, and got the attention of
Morales with some good body shots. Nelson was
showboating a lot, but not really displaying much
effective punching.
Morales came out swinging in the fourth, and was able to
score some points through most of the round. The fifth
appeared to be a pretty even round. In the final round
Nelson got in his best shot of the fight that sent Munoz
reeling backwards. But Munoz had been strong throughout,
and we went to the scorecards. The judges saw the fight
60-54 once and 59-55 twice, all for Munoz.
Many of the fighters who had fought under the Thompson
banner were in attendance, and were called to the ring
to be introduced One Last Time for Thompson. They
included Josesito Lopez, Mauricio Herrera, Chris
Arreola, Sindy Amador, the former World Champion Paul
Banke, Oscar Torres and Artemio Reyes.
Trainers were also brought forward, including Joel Diaz,
Willy Silva, Timothy Bradley’s father Ray, and Carlos
Bojorquez. Finally, matchmaker and Operations Manager
for Thompson, Alex Camponovo, was brought forward and
said a few words of thanks to everyone.
On a personal note, I met so many great people through
Thompson events, with Ken Thompson at the top of that
list. He was always so gracious and friendly, and his
passion and love for the sport was always evident. The
boxing world lost a great one this year, and I was
thrilled to feel a part of the Thompson family.
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