Andre Berto vs. Josesito Lopez: Winner, Recap and Reaction

In the main event on the second card of the nascent Premier Boxing Champions series, Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) defeated a game Josesito Lopez (33-7, 19 KOs) with a sixth-round knockout at the Citizen Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California.

The welterweight bout, scheduled for 12 rounds, was a fitting capper to a fine night of boxing that featured a Shawn Porter KO victory over Erick Bone and Chris Arreola winning an eight-round heavyweight slugfest with Curtis Harper by unanimous decision.

Lopez was the more aggressive and better fighter of the two through the first four-plus rounds on Friday. Strong ring movement and a heavy dose of jabs helped Lopez to ward off Berto's power punches for the most part. 

Berto lined everything up in the sixth, knocking Lopez down with a devastating right hook that drew an eight-count. Lopez came right back into the fray, only to be sent back to the mat almost immediately by another crushing blow from Berto. Here's a look at the deciding moment from a Matrix-style camera angle, via PBC on Twitter:

The official quickly waved off the fight, even though Lopez—a crowd favorite and native of nearby Riverside, California—appeared quite lucid after the stoppage.

Neither UCNLive.com's Steve Kim nor ESPN.com's Dan Rafael felt the ref should've called the fight so quickly:

The win makes it two in a row now for Berto, who's stumbled in recent years and had lost three of his last five bouts coming into Friday night's card. He showed no signs of lingering effects from a recent shoulder injury. This was Lopez's first loss since June 2013, when Marcos Maidana defeated him via TKO, also in the sixth round of a scheduled 12-round bout.

Berto was all coiled, unused energy in the first two rounds of the fight, unwilling or perhaps unable to match his opponent's bright early pace.

Lopez came at him with looping power punches and jabs to the body. Berto defended fairly well, although he took more blows than he dished out in the early goings. PBC provided a look at some of the second-round action:

Berto finally opened up a bit in the third, throwing more combinations and forcing Lopez back into the ropes on several occasions. However, Kim felt the strikes were more style than substance:

This fan noted during the bout that the 31-year-old's star has fallen in recent years:

Indeed, even when Berto trapped Lopez in a corner in the fourth and unloaded a barrage of punches, the local favorite appeared unfazed and egged Berto on.

The visual evidence after four suggested that Berto had indeed landed some significant blows to the head, as Lopez had some visible swelling over his right eye.

Box Bet's Tom Craze noted that the PBC Series hasn't been kind to fighters' eyesight so far:

Despite Berto opening up his hands and adding more variety to his attack, he was unable to unlock Lopez's defense early on and land a signature right-handed power punch.

Lopez's aggressiveness and punch rate served him well early on and had him in the early lead, but Jim Alexander of The Press-Enterprise noted that Berto had been gaining on Lopez as the fight carried on:

He showed even more improvement in the fifth, via Premier Boxing Champions:

In the sixth, Berto finally unleashed his devastating power. Berto won a brutal exchange in the middle of the ring, teeing up Lopez with a lefty shot to the head and then sending him canvas-bound with a Howitzer of a right hook.

Lopez was able to get vertical after that shot, but his time in this bout was short-lived. Berto came right back with another devastating right-handed blow, and that would be the end of the matter.

The crowd let their opinion be known with cascading choruses of jeers, but it was of course to no avail. Alexander noted the end of this fight echoed that of Lopez-Maidana:

Berto celebrated as the vitriol washed over him, secure in the knowledge that he just may be back in vogue in the welterweight ranks. 

It's a disappointing result for Lopez, whose three-match win streak ends with this result. With four losses in his last eight bouts, Lopez could be relegated to undercard status for quite some time unless he can line up an ascendant star or earn some notable victories. He acquitted himself well for five-plus rounds, and promoters looking for an action fighter willing to put on a show will likely keep him in mind.

BoxingScene.com opined before the fight that the winner of this bout might do well to face Robert Guerrero or Victor Ortiz:

Berto showed off his considerable power once again and could very well be in line to earn a higher-profile fight in the near future. With Premier Boxing Champions set for several more shows in the coming year, Berto just may become a fixture in this series.