Rusty Curry Stops Lopez in 4th Round

Donald Curry came back Tuesday night. But how far remains to be seen.

In his first appearance since being demolished by a Mike McCallum left hook in July, Curry, former undisputed welterweight champion, stopped Rigoberto Lopez of San Diego at 1:54 of the fourth round of their scheduled 10-round main event at the Country Club in Reseda.

The fight was a tuneup for Curry’s scheduled bout next month in Italy against Lupe Aquino, with the winner to fight for the World Boxing Council junior middleweight title. But it took the 26-year-old Curry, who lives in Fort Worth, Tex., a while to begin operating on all cylinders Tuesday. The months of inactivity showed in the early rounds.

“My timing was off,” Curry admitted, “and I was trying too hard. I was there to work some of the rust off. But Lopez was elusive, awkward, hard to catch.”

Curry, 28-2 with 20 knockouts, caught Lopez with a solid left to the body a little more than a minute into the fourth round. Lopez crumpled to the floor but managed to get back to his feet.

Curry moved in and again delivered a solid body shot, this time smashing his left into Lopez’s ribs. Again Lopez crumpled to the floor.

This time, referee John Thomas signaled Lopez had had enough.

Lopez, who dropped to 19-6 with eight knockouts, did not agree.

“He didn’t hit half as hard as Lupe Aquino, whom I’ve sparred with,” Lopez said. “I’ve fought tougher guys, a lot tougher. Curry’s not strong. He’s just a blown-up welterweight.”

Both men weighed 155 for the junior middleweight bout.

In other fights:

Junior lightweights Tony Olivas of Pasadena and Juan Torres of San Diego entered the ring for the first preliminary fight with a total of one win and 11 losses between them.

But Torres, more experienced at losing with 10 defeats already in the bank, did it again, going down from an accumulation of punches for the second and final time 2 1/2 minutes into the second round of their scheduled four-rounder.

The loss dropped Torres to a dismal 1-11-2. Olivas evened his record at 1-1.

Featherweight Dino Garza of North Hollywood, who had launched his pro career in auspicious fashion with four consecutive wins, suffered his second loss in three fights.

Javier Macias (5-3, four knockouts) of Pacoima knocked Garza out in the second round of their scheduled four-rounder with a devastating left hook.

Junior lightweight Hugo Orozco of San Diego boosted his record to 5-0 (three knockouts) by winning a split four-round decision over Filipe Ortiz (1-1-1, one knockout) of Los Angeles.

Junior lightweight Juan Hernandez of Los Angeles won his first pro fight, improving his mark to 1-3-2 by winning a unanimous four-round decision over Joe Esquivel (1-1) of Pacoima.

Welterweight Daryl Colquitt of Los Angeles improved his record to 6-5-2 with a unanimous five-round decision over David Guerra (8-16) of San Diego in the semi-main event.