In a WBO super featherweight bout, hard-punching Rogers Mtagwa dropped to (26-13-2 18 KOs) after losing a controversial unanimous decision to rising star Juan Manuel Lopez, of Puerto Rico (27-0 24 KOs) in front of a sold out crowd at the WaMu Theater in New York’s Madison Square Garden on October 10th. The Tanzanian, fighting out of Philadelphia, recovered from a 5th round knockdown by pressing the action in the later rounds and had Lopez out on his feet in the 12th round but was unable to finish him off. The judges scored the bout 114-113 with questionable cards of 115-111 and 116-111.
By Don Palacas.
