“JuanMa” Lopez (28-0, 25 KO’s) totally dominated and outmatched the skilled Steven Luevano to take away his WBO featherweight title in fantastic style. Lopez knocked out Luevano with a crushing right-left combo to floor Leuvano in the seventh round. Referee Benji Estevez stopped it at the :44 mark. In the co feature,  Gamboa (17-0, 15 KO’s) put on an fantastic performance in stopping Roger Mtagwa with a second round TKO at 2:35.

Lopez captured his second world title and hopes to one day match his idol, Felix ” Tito” Trinidad, accomplishment as the next great Puerto Rican fighter with four world titles. Trinidad was in the house and received the loudest cheer of the night from a crowd of about 5,000 in attendance at the Wamu theatre in Madison Square Garden. It was clear that Lopez’s power was too much for Luevano.

“We saw the video and we knew the right was there for me all night,” said Lopez.”I could feel I was landing it, and I was very surprised he took so many punches. He took a lot of punishment.”

Lopez nearly swept all the scorecards with one judge giving Luevano the 5th round. Lopez out-boxed him and hurt him repeatedly with straight left hands and quick hooks. Luevano was not able to use his counter punching skills as Lopez’s pressure was just too much.

JuanMa had a far easier time on Saturday night than the last time he fought at MSG. Lopez fought a life and death battle with Roger Mtagwa as he had to hold on for dear life in the final round to take the decision. He knew he had something to prove. I asked him what he thought was the difference from this fight than the Mtagwa fight.

“The difference was the four pounds and moving up in weight, said Lopez. ” I listened to my corner a lot more this time around. The last fight I did not listen to my corner as much I should have and stayed away from the gameplan. This time I was more discipline and it showed. I am still a work in progress and still improving.”

The turning point came when Lopez landed a great right that staggered the champion at the start of the seventh round. Leuvano backed up to the corner as he was badly hurt and Lopez went for the kill with the right hand and left hook combo for the knockout. As impressive as Lopez’s win was, Gamboa was the one that stole the show.

Gamboa had a far easier time with Roger Mtagwa than Lopez did. Gamboa retained his WBA featherweight title as he knocked Mtagwa twice in two rounds as referee Steve Smoger had seen enough and put a halt to the fight at 2:35 of the second round.

“I hope with this performance, no one compares me to JuanMa anymore,” Gamboa said. “We’re different fighters. I proved I’m Yuriorkis Gamboa.

From the sound of the opening bell, Gamboa used his blazing speed and power to totally take Mtagwa out of it. Landing some vicious left hooks in the 1st round, Gamboa knocked Mtagwa down toward the end of the first round with a left hand to the head.

Gamboa would not let Mtagwa breathe in Round 2 as he landed 38 of the 58 power shots he threw. Gamboa nailed Mtagwa with a power combination in the middle of the ring and then floored him with a right about halfway toward the round. Mtagwa and showed his heart as he tried to fight but Gamboa was too much as he would knock him down again and it was over.

” I came to demonstrate and become the best in my division, ” said Gamboa. I’d love for whoever the public or maybe the press considers the No. 1 featherweight, to have him in the ring for my next fight. That way I can show who is the best.”

With both guys victorious, the hope next would be a fight between the two but Top Rank promoter Bob Arum wants to hold off a little longer.

“I want to sweep out the whole featherweight division first,” said Arum. I want both these guys to take all the guys in the division like Chris John and Caballero. All of them and I want to milk this up as much as possible. I want this to be the biggest money fight in the featherweight history. I owe it to both guys.”

Arum talks that the next time the two fight could be June with a split site doubleheader. Gamboa would fight in Miami while Lopez would fight in his native Puerto Rico. The mentioned names could potential matchups for each guy.

Earlier in the evening, Irish John Duddy improved his record to 27-1 with a first-round TKO of Juan Astorga. Duddy is one of the more popular New York fighters and continued to hold that clai. He would knock Astorga with a left hook to the body that knock him down to cause ref Wayne Kelly to stop the bout at 1:51.

With the victory, Duddy earns himself a spot on the undercard on the Pacquioa-Clottey undercard.

But first things first for Lopez and Gamboa as they both have their hands full with very formidable challengers. Lopez (27-0, 24 KO’s) moves up to Featherweight as he challenges the WBO champion, Steven Luevano(37-1-1, 15 KO). What Juan Ma will be dealing with, in Luevano, is a fighter making the eighth defense of his WBO title who possesses an innate counter-punching ability and by far is the most skilled boxer that Lopez has faced so far.

Luevano is not the most exciting fighter in the world as he doesn’t possess the great speed or power that many of the top boxers have. What he does have is a great boxing IQ and someone that Lopez should not look past.He is very skilled southpaw fighter who many feel will give Lopez a real run for his money.Luevano has been dominant in the Featherweight division for a while now and is in a position where the most competition he can get is by facing an explosive smaller fighter who is willing to move up and try his luck in the Featherweight division.It should be very interesting to see not only how Luevano deals with Lopez’s aggression but also how Lopez deals with Luevano’s smart, tactically sound boxing.

Lopez hopes that to have an easier time in this fight than his last one. If you remember, Juan Ma had to survive a life and death battle against Rogers Mtagwa (26-13-2, 18 KO’s), Gamboa’s opponent for Saturday. Mtagwa almost pulled the great upset as he rocked Lopez bad at the end of the 11th round and if the bell not sounded, a knockout loss was very possible for Lopez. Mtagwa pushed hard in the 12th round and came within seconds of winning the fight but Lopez held on to finish the fight and win a tough unanimous decision.

Despite all that, Lopez gained a great deal of experience in the fight and will come into his fight against Luevano as a smarter fighter. He needs to be that if he is going to win this fight.Hopefully, he has learned to close some of the openings he gave Mtagwa, because Luevano will be able to exploit them much more easily.

While Luevano will be a tough opponent, I expect Lopez to come out the victor.He is too fast, too strong, too dynamic, and too skilled for Luevano> I say it’s goes the distance with Lopez getting the decision.

In the other featured bout, Mtagwa hopes to take advantage of his great performance against Lopez as he gets a shot against the dynamic and undefeated top prospect, Yurikois Gamboa(16-0, 14 KO’s).

The current WBA featherweight champion is on a roll right now. He is coming off a dominant performance when he knocked out Whyber Garcia in the 4th round on the undercard of the Lopez/Mtawga fight. He has won his last six fights by knockout and will try to have an easier time with Mtawga than Lopez did.

While Gamboa might not have the best chin or defense in the world, he has amazing combination of speed and power .I think he will better than Juanma at avoiding Mtagwa’s unorthodox but powerful shots.Gamboa will go into this fight with something to prove as he probably thinks that he should be the one main eventing this card and not Lopez. In his last fight, Gamboa made his feelings known that he is the man.

“I don’t think Juan Manuel Lopez is better than me,” Gamboa said. “He’s not a challenge for me. If we fight, I will show that. I think I should be the one carrying the card with Lopez because I am a better fighter than him.”

Just like the Lopez-Luevano fight, this should be a good bout as well. However, Yuriorkis simply has too much talent to lose. Mtagwa will come to fight, just as he did against Lopez, but Gamboa is going to prevail with a knockout coming between Round 8-10.