BOXING : Lopez Slips Quietly Back Into Retirement

Danny (Little Red) Lopez, battered from ringpost to ringpost Thursday night at the Irvine Marriott, was stopped easily by journeyman Jorge Rodriguez.

And Lopez, afterward, more than a decade after his first retirement, announced his second.

Lopez was rocked from the opening bell. After he was knocked down early in the second round, his trainer, John Montes Sr., climbed onto the ring apron as referee Larry Rozadilla stopped the bout 37 seconds into the round.

Almost everything in the former featherweight champion’s arsenal was gone--most conspicuously the punch that knocked out 39 opponents. Also gone were his reflexes.

But he did prove one thing: There’s still magic in that name, Danny (Little Red) Lopez.

He was vanquished, but it happened before a record crowd at Irvine Marriott ballroom--1,540 in the house, 1,408 paid.

Afterward, Lopez, 39, was a sad sight in his locker room, blood trickling from both his nose and a cut just beneath his right brow.

“I think maybe I shouldn’t be in the ring anymore,” he said, and his rueful smile said it all.

“I couldn’t get a shot on him. I could see what I had to do. I could see what punch I needed, but I just couldn’t. It’s disappointing. I’ve trained for this for a year.”

Lopez was in the ring for the first time since 1980, when he lost twice to the late Salvador Sanchez. At the outset, those who were pulling for him--which is to say 99% of the house--took heart at his appearance. He was lean, hard and a trim 130 pounds.

Rodriguez, 25, came in with a record of either 23-26-3 or 13-26-3, depending on who is keeping track. Lopez, who earned $7,000, came in at 42-5.

But Lopez had nothing.

Ten seconds into the bout, Rodriguez drilled Lopez with a left hook and a straight right hand. When Lopez was tagged with a second right, he stumbled and caught himself by putting his gloves on the canvas.

Lopez missed wildly with his first combination, and when Rodriguez countered with a left uppercut to Lopez’s chin, the old champion’s knees wobbled.

After the first round, referee Rozadilla and the ringside physician, Tony DeLuca, went to Lopez’s corner and took a long look.

Rodriguez pressed his attack immediately in the second. At the outset, he clubbed Lopez with five right hands. The end came when Rodriguez tagged Lopez with two left hooks and a following right. Almost in slow motion, Lopez went over backward.

The crowd, which paid a record $38,000 to see Lopez one more time, grew silent during the worst of the beating. It wasn’t pretty.