Lopez wins IBF featherweight belt

Luis Alberto “El Venado” Lopez won the IBF featherweight belt on a majority 12-round points decision against defending champion Josh Warrington at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, England on Saturday night.

Lopez (27-2; 15), the mandatory challenger, made a good start winning the early rounds as Warrington (32-2-1; 8) came on strong in the later rounds, but this was not enough for two of the judges.

The scores were 115-113 twice and 114-114.

UNDERCARD

In what was advertised as a grudge match, the IBF women’s bantamweight champion Ebanie “The Blonde Bomber” Bridges (9-1; 4) won on an eighth-round technical knockout against Shannon O’Connell (23-7-1; 11).

Felix Cash (16-0; 10), who is rated at No 4 middleweight by the WBO, outpointed Celso Nevez (9-3-2; 2) over eight rounds. The referee's score was 77-75. There were no judges.

T. LOPEZ WINS ON A SPLIT DECISION

Teofimo Lopez (18-1; 13), the undisputed world lightweight champion was made to work hard in scoring a 10-round split decision over Sandor Martin (40-3; 13) in a junior welterweight bout on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Martin’s nose was broken in the first round after a clash of heads and he scored a flash knockdown with a short right hand in the second round. The scores were 97-92 and 96-93 for Lopez and 95-94 for Martin.

"BIG BABY" ANDERSON WINS IN TWO

Jared “The Real Big Baby” Anderson (13-0; 13), who is listed at No 15 heavyweight by the WBC, stopped Jerry “Slugger” Forrest (26-5-2; 20) in the second round.

Anderson started slowly but then picked up the pace and smashed Forest toward the end of the first round.

With Forrest not fighting back, the fight was stopped at 1:34 into the second round.

Junior middleweight Xander Zayas (15-0; 10) won on points over eight rounds against the experienced Alexis Salazar (25-5; 10).

The scores were 80-72, 79-73, 79-73.

Olympic silver medallist Keyshawn Davis (7-0; 5) won on an eight-round unanimous points decision over Juan Carlos Burgos (35-7-3 21) in a lightweight bout.

MICHAEL CONLAN WINS IN ONE

Featherweight Michael “Mick” Conlan (18-1; 9) won on a first-round knockout over former two-division European champion Karim Guerfi (31-7; 9) on Saturday night at The SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Conlan knocked Guerfi down with a barrage of punches and referee Steve Gray stopped the fight at two minutes 24 seconds into the round.

In a junior welterweight bout, Sean “The Public Nuisance” McComb (16-1; 5) scored a one-sided 10-round unanimous points decision over Zsolt Osadan (23-1-1; 15) to claim the vacant WBO Euro title. The scores were 100-90 on all three judges’ scorecards.

Unbeaten WBC No 9-rated light heavyweight Pody “The Hammer” McCrory (16-0; 9) outscored Dmytro Fedas (8-1-2; 5) over eight rounds. The referee scored it 80-72.