Patrick Lopez fights out of Southern California under theThompson Boxing promotional banner and last Friday he won a unanimous decision over Cristian Favela at the Thompson card at the Double Tree Hotel in Ontario, California. With a 19-2 record Lopez is on the fringes of becoming a contender and is a huge 140 pounder with decent power and good technique. After his victory on Friday, the Examiner spoke to Patrick about Edwin Valero. The two had been amateur team-mates on the Venezuelan National team and Lopez talked about the tragedy as well as about his experiences with Valero.
“Valero and I shared a lot of experiences together on the Venezuelan national team. He was at 126 pounds and I was at 132. We were always together because we were close in weight and we used to spar together all the time, helping each other out with training. We travelled to six different countries together going to international competitions. He was always a family man, he always asked the national team for permission to leave the team to go visit his family in Merida because he was from there. I was never aware that anything was wrong or that he had family problems or any negative tendencies. He was always nice and respectful and got along with everyone. With everything that?s happened its been tough for everybody. I was just so surprised I was in Boston and my wife called me and told me what happened and it was as if someone had poored a glass of cold water on me. I never imagined this would happen because I know he was looking forward to another big fight and then this happened, it’s such a tragedy. I don?t drink, but I?ve been around him while he was drinking and after two or three drinks he used to get a little out of control, but I never thought anything like this could happen. If he had more than four beers he would get a little violent. I?m without words, we, all the Venezuelans were hoping that he would bring us another championship. Nobody at 135 pounds would have beaten him, nobody. He was kind of small for 140 pounds and would have had some problems at that weight. My family and everybody in Venezuela thinks we should try to watch out for people that are having those types of problems so things don?t end up like this. It’s just such a tragedy.”
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