Ricardo Lopez vs Anucha Phothong

Ricardo López retained the IBF world light flyweight championship by stopping Anucha Phothong in the third round at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Saturday, 2 December 2000. It was López’s first defence since taking the title from Will Grigsby fourteen months earlier. Phothong, the Thai southpaw who boxed as Ratanapol Sor Vorapin, had previously held the IBF minimumweight championship. The bout was on the undercard of the Félix Trinidad and Fernando Vargas contest, for which the announced attendance was 10,067.

Phothong tried to get inside, but López kept the early exchanges at a distance of his choosing and took the first two rounds on all three judges’ cards. The first clear sign of trouble for the challenger came midway through the second, when a left hook to the chin made him unsteady. Phothong stayed on his feet and made it to the bell.

A left uppercut shook Phothong again in the third. López followed with straight punches and hooks, landing cleanly enough for referee Richard Steele to step between them at 2 minutes 11 seconds. Phothong was still standing when Steele called a halt. It was López’s 49th victory and his 36th inside the distance. His only draw had come against Rosendo Álvarez, and he remained unbeaten.

I always liked watching Ricardo López because you could learn something just from watching his feet. He’d been out fourteen months since beating Will Grigsby, but his judgment of distance was still spot on. Phothong had held a world title himself, so I gave him a chance of making López work up close. He barely got a foothold.

The left hook in the second told me how this was going. Phothong had to come forward to get anything done, and López was balanced enough to punch as he came in. The left uppercut in the third took his legs, and López kept putting clean shots together. Richard Steele got it right. I’d have stopped it with Phothong still standing too.