Ken Shiro made sure there was no doubt he was the better boxer in his world title rematch against Ganigan Lopez.
Fighting in the co-main event of the Jamie McDonnell vs. Naoya Inoue WBA “regular” bantamweight title fight, Shiro retained his WBC light flyweight title with a second-round knockout win over Lopez. The fight was streamed for U.S. fans on the ESPN+ streaming service.
The fight started off relatively tame, with both men throwing the occasional jab to establish a rhythm and feel their opponent out. As far as power punches thrown in the first round is concerned, there were no significant shots thrown from either boxer. The second round also started the same until Shiro started throwing and landing more right jabs to Lopez. It was one of those right jabs, a well-placed one to Lopez’s liver, that sent the former champion down to the canvas and unable to get back up well past the 10-count. With Lopez unable to answer the referee’s 10-count, Shiro scored his second consecutive knockout win.
Shiro first won the WBC title when he narrowly defeated Lopez by majority decision back on May 20, 2017. Shiro retained his title twice afterwards, first a majority decision win over Pedro Guevara and then a TKO win over Gilberto Pedroza, before meeting Lopez in the rematch. Shiro is now 13-0 as a pro boxer with seven knockout wins.
The 36-year-old Lopez has now lost twice in his past three fights. Prior to that, Lopez had won 15 of his last 17 fights, including two wins in world title fights.
