Lopez And Reynoso Fight To A Draw

By Marc Livitz: Adam "Mantequilla" Lopez and Roman "Ruben" Reynoso battled to a majority draw after ten well contested rounds of a super bantamweight bout at the Foxwoods Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut on Friday evening. Lopez came very close to a knockout in the last moments but found his Argentine opponent to be a very hard read.

Reynoso threw wild punches in bits in the opening round while Lopez (15-0-1, 7 KO’s) remained patient as he attempted to establish his jab. Roman’s awkward style forced Adam into a thinking game. The pattern continued in the second and it was not until a minute deep into the third that the two exchanged hard right hands. Reynoso (18-1-2, 7 KO’s) looked to keep his distance, in fact a very big one and simply lead a bull rush into his undefeated San Antonio, Texas opponent.

The Montreal, Quebec fighter (by way of Quilmes, Buenos Aires) was on the wrong side a three inch height disadvantage and took an uppercut which jarred his head slightly from Adam in the fourth. Roman landed a loud, yet not particularly hard over hand right towards the end of the round which left Lopez somewhat off balance. He followed this with another looping right with thirty seconds to spare.

The signature right connected again a minute into round five. Adam Lopez was trying to keep Reynoso at bay with his left jab as his Argentine foe charged in from odd angles. His undefeated record was being put to the test as well as his fighting mettle. The bout progressed to the second half of its scheduled ten rounds and Roman remained aggressive, although Adam connected with a quick fire, four punch combination early in the sixth. He was more accurate with his punches and landed a short left hook later on yet as before, "Ruben" Reynoso came right back.

Adam Lopez clearly had his hands full tonight and was in no way completely prepared for the oddity that was Reynoso. His right connected with better accuracy in round seven. He was able to time his opponent’s moves to greater success, though he did find himself on the receiving end of a right as well as left sweeping shot from Roman to end the period. Four hard rights landed for Reynoso in the opening seconds of the eighth. A three punch combination a minute later connected for him, too. Lopez looked to hunt down Reynoso in the ninth, perhaps in an attempt to salvage what may have been a very close fight. His jab was landing but he wasn’t able to as of yet catch Reynoso coming in on one of his many surges inward. The bout moved on to the tenth and last round.

The first minute of round ten was a firefight in a phone booth. The two men leaned into one another and punched high and low. Lopez’s right was his best weapon and Reynoso was beginning to visibly tire as his once accurate yet wild shots were looping wide. A solid right from Adam staggered Reynoso with thirty seconds left in the contest. As Roman hung on to stay in the contest, his mouthpiece fell out of his mouth, most likely in an intentional move because his legs were completely shot. Referee Danny Schiavone had to direct him back into the fight after time was recommenced with just seventeen seconds left.

Lopez looked for the knockout in the dying moments, but it wasn’t to be. The fact that he finished extremely strong in the contest likely made him think the efforts had won it for him. The judges’ scorecards read as follows: 96-94 for Lopez (Don Ackerman), 97-93 for Reynoso (Bill Moran) and 95-95 (Peter Hary) to leave the bout as a majority draw.

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July 23, 2016