Juan Manuel Lopez & Bob Arum SHOWTIME Conference Call Highlights
By Special Report on Doghouse Boxing (April 8, 2011)
Undefeated
World Boxing Organization (WBO) featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez and Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum participated in media
conference call on Friday to discuss Lopez’s upcoming title defense
against former International Boxing Federation (IBF) 126-pound champ Orlando “Siri” Salido, on Saturday, April
16, live on SHOWTIME® (10:30
p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the West Coast).
The
exciting, hard-hitting Lopez (30-0, 27 KOs), of
San Juan , P.R., is a two-division world
champion who’ll be making his third WBO title defense. The talented
southpaw is coming off an excellent eighth-round TKO over Mexico’s boxing
legend and future Hall of Famer, Rafael
Marquez, in a tense give-and-take slugfest last Nov. 6 on SHOWTIME. Lopez, 27, has knocked out 90
percent of his opponents.
Salido
(34-11-2, 22 KOs), 30, of Ciudad
Obregon , Mexico ,
is more dangerous than his record would indicate. In his last start, he scored
a knockdown and went the distance against power-punching WBA featherweight
champion Yuriorkis Gamboa on Sept.
11, 2010. The points loss came one start after he registered two knockdowns en
route to winning a decision and the then-vacant IBF title over Cristobal Cruz.
The
fight will originate from Ruben Rodriguez
Coliseo in Bayamon, Puerto Rico and
is promoted by Top Rank, Inc.
Here’s
what Lopez and Arum had to say on Friday:
ARUM: “JuanMa Lopez is one of the
great fighters in the sport today. He has another tough test on April 16
when he fights Orlando Salido, who is one of the top featherweights in the
world. I know that many of you have followed the progress of JuanMa Lopez as he
has gotten better and better and he matures as both a person and a
fighter. JuanMa is one of the great stars in boxing today and one of the
most exciting fighters around.”
LOPEZ: “I’m very happy to
be in this fight with SHOWTIME. I’m very happy and I’m ready to
go.
“I
feel really good. We had our seven day weigh in today and I came in at 130
(pounds). I feel great – it’s been a real good camp. We
did all we needed to do and we’re right there at weight.
“Usually
going into this week I weigh one or two more pounds than I did today. That just
shows you how hard we’re working and how good we’ve done with
training. We’re a little surprised that we came in this low.
Juan, do you want to have a better
performance against Salido than Gamboa did?
LOPEZ: “I don’t think
about it that way. Every opponent is tough, every opponent is
different. We’re all different fighters. To me, it’s
just what I can do. I certainly want to look good and I want to do as well as I
can, but I don’t want to compare myself to what he did and what I’m
going to do.”
Juan, do you not like when people compare
your victory over Rogers
Mtagwa to Gamboa’s victory over Mtagwa?
LOPEZ: “People can say or think
what they want about those fights and they’re going to do the same with
what I do against Salido and what he did against Salido. It’s not
that important. I think what’s important is once we get in the ring
– we’ll see how we do against each other.”
Gamboa said that Top Rank is going to wait
to make the fight (Gamboa-Lopez) because Juan doesn’t have what it takes
to beat him. Juan, did you hear him say that?
LOPEZ: “We’re just
fighters. I don’t think we’re afraid of each other. I’m not
afraid of fighting Gamboa anytime he’s there. We never said we
wouldn’t fight him. Bob Arum, he’s our promoter.
He’s the best. He’ll tell us when the fight is ready.”
Is there anything about JuanMa that has
surprised you? Has he exceeded your expectations?
ARUM: “The thing that makes him
so special is how fan friendly he is. How he lights up a room, how the
fans drift to him. There’s nobody better as far as the Puerto Rican fans
are concerned. The Puerto Ricans have embraced JuanMa similar to the way
they did with Tito Trinidad and Miguel Cotto. When you put a very popular
Puerto Rican, a real top Puerto Rican, on a pay-per-view card you can count on
tremendous numbers of buys from the island. That’s why we did so well in
the Cotto-Mayorga fight – because we had 55,000 Puerto Rican households
buy that fight. JuanMa is quickly getting a fan base where he will be
able to reach those numbers.”
JuanMa, what do you know about
Salido. What kind of fight do you expect?
LOPEZ: “He’s one of those
fighters that comes forward. He won’t stop when you put on the
pressure. He’ll be there all night. I have to be intelligent.
I have to know that he’s going to be coming at me at all times. I
just have to be very smart and be careful and do my job – win every round
and win round by round.”
Are there any opponents that you could
compare to Salido?
LOPEZ: “I think (Gerry)
Penalosa was the same kind of fighter – a guy that came forward and was
there all night and was a very strong fighter. The only difference was he
was lefthanded.”
JuanMa, who was your favorite Puerto Rican
fighter growing up and is it important for you to be considered one of the best
fighters from Puerto Rico ?
LOPEZ: “I know the great
tradition that there is in Puerto Rico with
the boxers. I’m very proud to be part of that tradition. Without a doubt,
growing up my idol and still is Felix Trinidad.”
Bob, congrats on being in boxing 45
years. What are the biggest differences now in the sport?
ARUM: “Well, you have to
understand when I first started in the sport in the mid-‘60s there were
no satellites – no international satellites, no domestic
satellites. So the communication, we would look at it as being in the
dark ages. When we did a closed circuit fight it was a whole different business
model because of how limited we were in communication. Now, we have all
of the satellites, we have pay-per-view, we have stuff that no one even
contemplated 45 years ago. In the next 10 or 15 years people will be
buying a pay-per-view fight on their iPad. They won’t only be
buying it on their iPad but they’ll be electing which corner to watch
between rounds and which camera angle to watch a fight from. Everything
changes yet everything stays the same because, ultimately, it’s two guys
in the ring facing off against each other.”
Do you see any comparisons between the
first Leonard-Hearns fight and a potential fight between Gamboa and
Lopez?
ARUM: “Everyone likes that
comparison because the first Leonard-Hearns fight was such a tremendous
event. There had been such anticipation over the years because they both
fought other people. I believe if this could be even 50 percent of the
excitement which we went into with the Leonard-Hearns fight I would be very
grateful.”
JuanMa, you had some scary moments with
Marquez in your last fight and Salido is a pretty decent puncher. Can you
afford to continue to be reckless?
LOPEZ: “Every fight you have to
adapt to whatever is happening in the ring. With Marquez, I did what I
needed to do and with Salido I’ll do what I need to do. Everybody
knows that I love to engage and if that’s what I have to do then
that’s what I’ll do. I’m young, I’m strong and
I’m ready for whatever he brings.”
JuanMa, if the Gamboa fight isn’t
ready yet for pay-per-view do you feel that your body can wait or do you feel
like you’ll have to move up soon to 130?
LOPEZ: “I don’t think I
have a lot of time here at 126. I think if the fight comes along this
year it will be at 126, if it doesn’t I think it will be at 130 next
year.”
After the tremendous fight against Marquez,
are you able to walk the streets in Puerto Rico
or are you mobbed with autographs?
LOPEZ: “It’s hard for me
to move anywhere in Puerto Rico . It takes a
lot longer to get things done that I want to get done. People are always
talking to me, always stopping me, but you just always go with the flow.
With all due respect to Miguel Cotto and Ivan Calderon – two great
champions – I feel that I’m the most popular boxer in
Puerto Rico .”
JuanMa, is there any chance that you feel
like you could experience a letdown against Salido?
LOPEZ: “I know how important
every fight is for my career and I’m going to be at my best no matter who
the opponent is. I believe that Salido is going to give me a real tough
fight. I know how good he is and I know that I have to be well-prepared
to beat him.”
“I
just want to thank everyone, especially the fans, for all the support
they’ve given me. I hope they watch the fight. I think it will be a
great fight and I hope they enjoy it.
Gus Johnson will call the action from
ringside with Al Bernstein providing
color commentary and Jim Gray serving
as ringside reporter. David Dinkins Jr. is the executive producer of SHOWTIME Sports® with Chuck McKean producing and Bob Dunphy directing.
For
information on SHOWTIME Sports Programming, including exclusive
behind-the-scenes video and photo galleries, complete telecast information and
more, please go the new SHOWTIME Sports website at http://www.sho.com/sports.
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