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After several rounds of perceived horseplay, Mexico's David Lopez had seen enough.

His neck was grabbed. His foot was stepped on. And he went down after a low blow from Colombian middleweight Samuel Miller.

So Lopez fought back. With words.

"You don't appear to be fighting like a Mexican," Lopez told Miller.

Then Lopez added a figurative exclamation point, pummeling Miller over the final two rounds of his 12-round main event victory on Friday at the Desert Diamond Casino. The victory moved the popular Nogales veteran to 37-12 (25 KOs), retained his WBC Latino middleweight belt and earned him $15,000.

"It was definitely a really hard fight," Lopez said through manager Javier Zapata. "We learned from fighting (Fulgencio) Zuniga — most Colombians have the same style. We just went to box and not to knock out."

Making the issue even more pressing for Miller, Lopez said, was that he was getting beaten early. Lopez won eight of the first nine rounds on all three judges' cards before Miller (19-3, 16 KOs) managed to win the 10th on two of three scorecards.

"He got tired after the first rounds and couldn't do anything, so he had to switch to the bad boxing," Lopez said. "The only choice he had was to do that."

Miller disagreed.

"I was never" tired, he said, adding that Lopez was simply a smart fighter who made it difficult on him. Miller, who earned $10,000, also said he hit Lopez's neck only because he sank his head so low.

Whatever the case, the wounds healed fast. About 30 minutes after the fight, Miller approached Lopez in a crowd of fans to ask for a photo. The two embraced, smiled and posed.

Lopez, 30, is hoping the fight served as a springboard to another title path. Zapata said he thinks Lopez, ranked as the No. 12 middleweight by Boxrec.com, will face the winner of next week's Marco Antonio Rubio-Enrique Ornelas fight.

But both of those fighters are hoping to face top-ranked Kelly Pavlik, so who knows?

"Nobody (ranked) within 1-10 wants to fight David," Zapata said. "We're trying to fight anybody. So we'll have to get going and wait his turn to be a champion."

On the co-main event, super-featherweight David Rodela of Oxnard, Calif., made his case to advance, beating veteran Kevin Kelley in an eight-round split decision. Rodela, who earned $6,955, is in the process of signing with Golden Boy Promotions.

It was an odd challenge for Rodela, 26, who said he grew up watching the "Flushing Flash" take on big-time opponents such as Naseem Hamed, Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera.

"He showed some of his experience and I showed some of my inexperience when I got caught up in the moment," Rodela said. "I learned more in this fight than in any of my other fights."

Kelley, who earned $12,000, said he was impressed with Rodela.

"He's definitely a good little boxer," Kelley said. "He's got some things to learn but has an opportunity to do things. I enjoyed working with him."

On the undercard:

● Tucson heavyweight Eric Woods improved to 4-0 (3 KOs) by knocking out hard-charging 314-pounder Andrew Fish (0-1) of Oklahoma City in just 55 seconds.

● Tucson featherweight Thomas Herrera (2-0) won a four-round unanimous decision over Dustin Day (0-2) of Mesa.