|
In his last four fights,
Josesito Lopez has a record of 1-3, going through the gauntlet of Jessie
Vargas, Victor Ortiz, Saul Alvarez and Marcos Maidana. In his last two bouts,
he was stopped in the fifth and sixth rounds, respectively. But because of the
fan-friendly style of “The Riverside Rocky,” his recent record isn't held
against him all that much. The bottom line is when Lopez fights, you get a good
show and because of that, he's still in the mix for significant bouts moving
forward.
That said, he is taking a
step back this Friday night when he returns to the ring versus the shopworn
Mike Arnaoutis at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California, in a
match-up designed to get Lopez back on the winning track and not so physically
punished in the process.
“It was somewhat necessary,
stepping slightly down a level,” Lopez conceded. “I've been fighting with heavy
guys, big fighters and I think it’s good. I'm preparing just as well and I
think it'll get my confidence back up.”
Lopez feels the effects of
his recent run which saw him pay a heavy price for increased exposure and the
lucrative paydays that come with it.”Y’ know, sitting down and thinking about
it, I'm like, ‘Yeah, I've had a tough road.’ But I'm used to it. I've had a
tough road my whole career. These last few fights have been tough and we get
this victory and go on to bigger things,” he said.
Henry Ramirez, who trains
and manages Lopez, believes the time was right for an “Econo Lube” fight, “Absolutely.
I mean coming off the Victor Ortiz fight, which was a taxing fight, obviously
the ‘Canelo’ fight where [Lopez] was overmatched and undersized, the rugged
Maidana fight, which was a back-and-forth fight. This [Arnaoutis] fight was
necessary fight. This was carefully thought about between Al Haymon and I. This
fight will lead him back into a big fight early next year.”
But you wonder just how much
did this recent run of fights take out of Lopez, now 29 years old with 36 pro
bouts (a 2006 no-contest notwithstanding) under his belt?
“I think he'll be alright. He
had time off. After the ‘Canelo’ fight between the Maidana fight, he had about
eight or nine months off and then he had a little time off due to the injury. I
think he's got plans to fight three or four more years,” said Ramirez, during a
media day for this card held at the Daniel Ponce de Leon Boxing Club in
Montebello last week. Speaking of that injury, Lopez was scheduled to return in
early September before damaging his right shoulder while sparring over the
summer.”Everything's good,” Lopez stated, “I did therapy for months. So
everything's perfect now.”
If Lopez gets past Arnaoutis,
a natural fight would be a rematch with Ortiz, who still doesn't seem to fully
acknowledge that Lopez's hands had anything to do with breaking his jaw that
June night at the Staples Center last year.
“I think that's unsettled
business there,” said Lopez, who parlayed that upset into his own shot at
Alvarez that September. “I don't think he even believes it yet, so I think we'd
have to do it again sometime. I don't know when it would be but I'd definitely
like to do it again.”
While Lopez wants that
fight, his desire to face Ortiz in the opposite corner pales in comparison to
Ramirez, who states bluntly, “I don't like Victor. I don't make no bones about
it. The guy comes up with every f*ckin’ excuse why he lost. ‘Oh, I lost because
I broke my jaw.’ Well, OK; did you break your jaw walking back to the corner?
It came from a punch and he keeps talking about how, ‘I was winning the fight,
nine-to-nothing.’ To me, if it happens, great. If not, it doesn't matter. But
it seems logical but I don't know if [Ortiz] can really make the weight
anymore, 147.
“There's a lot of fights out
there at 147. It's a deep division, so after this, first quarter of next
year, we'll see what we can come up with.”
Regardless, for Lopez, this
respite was beneficial.
“Yeah, I think so. It helped
me a lot. I worked my way into training camp instead of rushing in six, eight
weeks of training.”
I can be reached
at k9kim@yahoo.com and I tweet at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing.
We also have a Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing,
where you can discuss our content with Maxboxing readers as well as chime in
via our fully interactive article comments sections. |
