BOXING IN IRVINE : Lopez Goes Down Three Times, Loses Title

Junior lightweight Ben Lopez was expecting Hector Monjardin to stick and move the way he did in their fight two months ago at the Olympic Auditorium. Lopez was a little off in his prediction.

Monjardin did a lot of sticking, very little moving and a lot hitting. The hitting stopped 1 minute 2 seconds into Round 1 when referee Larry Rozadilla mercifully stopped the fight after three knockdowns and gave Lopez’s California junior lightweight championship to Monjardin on Thursday night at the Irvine Marriott.

“I was trying to do what he was trying to do,” said Lopez, who lives in Upland. “My game plan was to come out quickly. We were both wailing. He got me first.”

Monjardin (14-5-1 with six knockouts) got Lopez (20-14-1) with a left-right combination. The right caught Lopez flush and sent him down. Lopez slowly got up, but he never regained his balance.

Within seconds, Lopez was falling down and stumbling into the ropes after getting hit with a flurry of blows. Rozadilla let Lopez continue, but Monjardin pounced on Lopez quickly and sent him toward the ropes. Finally, Rozadilla waved his arms and stopped the bout.

“I really didn’t think I looked that bad,” Lopez said. “But I guess it would look different from outside the ring.”

It looked pretty good to Monjardin, who had said he would end the bout within five rounds.

“I never thought it would be this easy,” Monjardin said through an interpreter. “I expected a real tough fight because of the last one.”

Monjardin, who lives in Carson, won the last one, a non-title fight, but it took him 10 rounds to win it.

In the undercard, Costa Mesa welterweight Jaime Valdez (6-3-2) fought to a four-round draw with Tony West (6-7-1). Light heavyweight Asludein Umarov of Russia knocked out Sergio Guerrero at 2:22 of the first round with a vicious right.

Guerrero reached his feet, but referee Raul Caiz would not allow him to continue. Umarov, who lives in Cerritos, has won all four of his fights by knockout.