Derrick Kelly Wins NABF Welterweight Title at Forum

Derrick Kelly won a championship and Hector Lopez won the first bout of his comeback and TV announcer/boxer Ruben Castillo may have been knocked back behind the microphone when he lost a decision in another comeback bout at the Forum Monday night.

Kelly, a Los Angeles welterweight who is 18-1 and ranked eighth in the world by the World Boxing Council, beat Luis Santana (38-8) on a 12-round unanimous decision to win the North American Boxing Federation welterweight title.

Lopez (18-1), who won an Olympic Games silver medal in Los Angeles in 1984 when he was a 17-year-old Glendale Hoover High junior, registered a 10-round unanimous decision over Rogelio Lopez (16-7).

Hector Lopez was boxing for the first time in 7 months, having spent part of that time in jail on kidnap charges involving his girlfriend.

Through those 7 months, Lopez retained his No. 1 WBC featherweight ranking, but he looked a bit less than that Monday night.

Hector was much the harder hitter against Rogelio, staggering his opponent several times. But he was unable to put him away. Or even down. Hector Lopez piled up a huge points lead with his quicker feet, leaping right hands, countering left hooks and left jabs for the first six rounds.

Hector then appeared to have decided that he couldn’t stop Rogelio, and switched to a movement strategy. Hector also seemed to run out of gas in the later rounds, and even he admitted he lacked sharpness.

Nonetheless, the judges scored it 98-94, 98-92 and 99-91 for Hector. The Times card was 99-90.

“I got tired, and I wasn’t sharp,” he said. “I hurt my left hand--the main knuckle--in the sixth round, so I kind of backed off from slugging with him then,” Hector said.

Rogelio Lopez, while he came up short in punching power and quickness, may have won the courage award. Hector, until he gave up trying to knock out Rogelio, landed some thumping shots to Rogelio’s head, particularly in the third and fourth rounds.