Angelo Leo
On a Saturday night with a UFC event devoid of star power on ESPN+ and Vergil Ortiz Jr. winning the interim WBC super welterweight title in a slugfest on DAZN, a scintillating 10th-round KO from Angelo Leo stole the combat sports show this weekend on ESPN network TV.
Leo knocked Luis Alberto Lopez out with a perfectly executed and devastating left hook to capture the IBF featherweight title in his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
I cited Mikey Williams in the image, but I have to give a special acknowledgment to arguably the best combat sports photographer in the world, and we see another example of his work in the image he captured perfectly with Leo’s decisive left hook.
In case you missed it, Top Rank Boxing, the event promoter, posted it with the caption, “Mark it. KO of the Year.”
Top Rank also posted this look at the KO from multiple angles.
The term KO of the Year gets thrown around a lot. I referred to Lucas Bahdi’s KO of Ashton “H20” Sylve as the knockout of the year last month.
Bahdi’s KO came on the undercard of Jake Paul vs. Mike Perry in a fight against an up-and-coming but largely unproven fighter in a bout with almost no stakes.
The Leo KO was different.
Beyond the savage nature of the KO, there was a legitimate world title on the line. Leo was in his hometown, and the fight was very close. How close? All three judges for the fight had scored it within a point. Esther Lopez and Fernando Villarreal had Leo up a point, while Zachary Young had Lopez up one.
For Leo to have pulled off such a clutch victory with such a high level of decisiveness may give it the nod for KO of the year. Counterpunching was the path to victory for Leo even before the KO. After the fight, Leo talks about the importance of victory.
“This means the world to me, fighting back in my hometown,” Leo said. “I’ve been yearning for this moment. Like I said, what better way to do it than with a world title shot and with a knockout That left hook, we’ve been practicing in camp for four, five months. Not in the gym, but in my room in front of the mirror. I just kept throwing that left hook. And it paid off in the 10th round.”
Leo will have options as a legitimate world champion, and one of them could be a rematch with Lopez, at least at some point.
“I want to fight all the champions, whether it be Rafael Espinoza for a unification bout.,” Leo said. “Naoya Inoue, whoever it may be.”
Before the fight, Lopez seemed to have an eventual showdown with Inoue in mind, but after losing his belt so brutally, that opportunity is no longer on the table for him. It will be interesting to see if Leo decides to challenge Inoue next.
The Japanese superstar will defend his undisputed junior featherweight titles against TJ Doheny on Sept. 3 in Tokyo.
Leo and others will have a close eye on that fight.
Ortiz defeated Serhii Bohachuk in what some described as the Fight of the Night. Ortiz claimed the interim WBC super welterweight title. You can read about it and see the highlights here.
UFC Vegas 95 was pretty uneventful. There were 10 fights and seven ended in a decision. All three stoppage wins came by submission. That includes Serghei Spivac submitting Marci Tybura via armbar in the main event.
The recap to the event is here.
UFC 305 in Perth, Australia takes center stage next weekend.
