At a spectacular philanthropical event in Dallas last night, produced by the The Real Estate Council, Super Bantamweight Tony Lopez (12-2, 4 KO's) from Fort Worth, Texas, captured his second green belt of the WBC. This time he won the WBC (USNBC) Super Bantamweight belt after defeating the tough Ranel Suco (16-8, 7 KO's) from the Philippines.
In a battle of southpaws, the first round started out with a very focused Lopez landing his jab with lightning speed and accuracy to the head and body of Suco. But Suco came to fight and he came out swinging for the fences in an attempt to end it early.
With patience and confidence in his speed in the ring, Lopez continued to land his jab and counter everything the Philippino delivered. Lopez was able to land a clean right hand in the middle of this round that rocked Suco momentarily but he took the punch well.
Suco started the third round by landing a glancing right hand to the head of Lopez. Suco then attempted to engage a toe-to-toe fight with Lopez, but he was met with quick counter punches by Lopez which slowed down the Philippino's tactic. Lopez then began to land several body punches and finished it with a lightning fast right hand to the amusement of the crowd in attendance. It actually appeared that Lopez was toying with Suco at the end of the round as he landed precise punches at will, to the chagrin of his opponent, who gave him a dirty look as the bell sounded to end the round.
In the fourth round, Suco started to put the pressure on Lopez as he stalked him around the ring. But instead of Suco getting the better of it, it looked like Lopez was just reeling him in to connect with his counter punches. In the middle of the round, as they both fought on the inside, Lopez landed a good body punch, but Suco returned the favor and landed his own short right hand to the head of Lopez, but Lopez just shrugged it off. At the end of the round, Lopez landed one last good body punch to close the action.
In the beginning of the fifth round it appeared that the crowd was going to get a full ten rounds of action from these two fast and athletic bantamweights. The round started out with both fighters connecting with punches and counterpunches, but as they both moved in close, Lopez was caught with an unintentional headbutt that momentarily stopped the action. At first, it looked like it might continue, but the Referee stopped the fight at 2:14 of the fifth round and they went to the scorecards. The official cards read 49-46, 50-45, 50-45, declaring Lopez the winner and new WBC (USNBC) Super Bantamweight champion of Fort Worth.