Lopez Rallies to Knock Out Bejines in 9th

Glendale featherweight Hector Lopez, behind on all the scorecards, rallied in the eighth and ninth rounds and knocked out Oscar (Negro) Bejines of Guadalajara, Mexico, in the ninth round Saturday night at the Sports Arena.

Lopez’s come-from-behind victory saved a World Boxing Assn. featherweight championship bout with champion Antonio Esparragoza of Venezuela, probably in August.

Lopez, 130, who won a silver medal in the 1984 Olympic Games while a student at Glendale Hoover High School, raised his record to 16-1, while Bejines, 128, is 35-5-2.

The fight started slowly with both fighters posturing more than fighting in the first round. But they raised the temperature considerably with furious exchanges in a wild second round.

Bejines had much the better of it for the first six rounds. Lopez bounced back strongly in the seventh, a round in which Bejines began bleeding heavily from the nose. In the eighth, Lopez hurt Bejines with a long right, twice drove him into the ropes and dropped him with 40 seconds left in the round.

The end came 47 seconds into the ninth, when Lopez finished it with a left hook.

On the undercard, lightweight Ernie Landeros scored a fifth-round knockout of Vicente Gonzales.

There were two knockdowns, once when Gonzales put Landeros down in the second round.

But at the end of the first round, referee Dr. James Jen Kin got caught with a wild left hook by Landeros. Kin was knocked flat on his back. He took what looked like a four-count, got up and finished strong with a cut lip.