Perez Wins Super Welterweight Title Over Distracted Lopez

While Tomas Perez stood in the ring and thanked his fans after winning a 12-round decision and the California super welterweight title Monday at the Irvine Marriott, Kenny Lopez had more on his mind than a loss.

Lopez, who withstood an almost constant attack and lost by scores of 119-109, 118-110, 116-114, found out Saturday that there is little hope for his 9-month-old daughter, who is suffering from a liver disorder.

Lopez’s daughter was born prematurely and has been in the Stanford Medical Center for the past three months, hooked up to a life-support system. She weights only 8 pounds.

Despite the news, Lopez, who is from Modesto, decided to fight Monday.

While he was impressive in his resistance to a punch, Lopez wasn’t able to score enough to prevent Perez from winning the title.

Perez, a Santa Ana resident who improved to 19-3, attacked from the outset, landing several punches that seemed strong enough to drop Lopez. The pair brought many in the crowd of 1,087 to their feet during the third and fifth rounds. Often in both rounds it looked as if either fighter might fall.

After the fight, the crowd threw nearly $100 into the ring in appreciation.

“He took a lot of punishment,” Perez said. “That’s one tough guy. There were times when I thought he would go down, but after he took too many punches, I could see he wasn’t going to. So, I decided the only way to do it was to box him.”

Perez used his left jab to kept Lopez (16-8) away in the final four rounds as the two fighters seemed tired by the earlier action.

Perez earned $3,500 and Lopez $3,000.

Despite the cheers of many supporters from his hometown of Newport Beach, Richard DeMarco proved easy prey for Abel Cordova of Mexico City in a 160-pound fight on the undercard.

Cordova (28-14) send DeMarco (6-2) to the ropes with a powerful jab and then quickly to the floor with a combination at 1:50 of the opening round.

It was the 11th knockout of Cordova’s career.

Ben Lopez of Ontario scored the first knockout of the night. He dropped Raul Valdez of San Diego in the second round of the 134-pound fight.

Lopez (6-1) used a pair of combinations to knock down Valdez two minutes into the second. Valdez was able to get back up, but only for a short time. Lopez attacked again with the combinations, Valdez went down and the fight was over 2:38 into the second round.

Boxing Notes

Mike White, who was knocked out and lost his state heavyweight title to Levi Billups earlier this summer, will return to the ring next month at the Irvine Marriott. White fights Mark (Chill) Whills Sept. 29 at Irvine in the main event. Billups will not grant White a rematch, according to Promoter Don Fraser. . . . Johnny Tapa, a promising bantamweight from Albuquerque, N.M., and Rocky Goodard, a powerful light heavyweight from London, are also scheduled to be on the card.