Lupe Pintor Stopped by Arreola in 7 Rounds

Another Mexican legend was hung out to dry. This time it was former bantamweight champion Lupe Pintor dramatizing the lesson of ring mortality. Pintor, for three years an indomitable puncher, was stopped by unranked Adrian Arreola in seven rounds at the Olympic Auditorium Thursday night.

Pintor, who was making a comeback at 126 pounds, was never in the fight, absorbing all manner of punches from Arreola. Pintor had announced his retirement last year, having never fully recovered from a motorcycle accident and having never seen 118 pounds again, the weight of his last greatness.

Pintor, 125 1/2, was nearly out in the third, saved by the bell. Arreola, 126, was moving him all across the ring, pushing him with left hooks. Pintor, who was never quick to begin with, was positively glacial with the added weight.

And when ringside physician Dr. Bernhart Schwartz advised referee Marty Denkin to stop the fight with Pintor sitting on his stool at the end of the seventh round with his left eye swollen shut, there was no protest from the former champion’s corner.

So Pintor joins former welterweight champion Pipino Cuevas, anther Mexico City legend, who showed his age and vulnerability here. Even remembered greatness is no match in the face of a left hook. Tough break of the night went to Martin Morado of San Diego, a clever boxer who was more than holding his own with super featherweight contender Mario (Azabache) Martinez of Guadalajara. Through most of five rounds, that is, until Martinez delivered a fierce flurry that had Morado wobbling.

Morado, 136, would have been saved by the bell, had referee Larry Rosadilla heard it. Instead, Martinez, 135 1/2, just kept punching until Morado was on the seat of his pants, reclining against the ropes.

What looked to be a knockdown, even a knockout, was overlooked in a sense of fairness and, after an extra-long spell between rounds, the two were allowed at it again in the sixth.

Martinez, who was stopped in his bid for the World Boxing Council title last September, wasn’t going to be stopped this time. He needed just 2:42 of round six to put the badly damaged Morado away.