Coming off his close 10-round defeat last September against Jessie Vargas, Josesito Lopez?s first scheduled bout of 2012 was to have taken place on June 22nd as the main event on ESPN2?s ?Friday Night Fights? versus Kendall Holt, in a crossroads junior welterweight contest. Fast forward to this Saturday night and he?s facing Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez for the WBC junior middleweight title at the MGM Grand (Showtime 9 p.m., ET). Yeah, it?s been quite a year for ?The Riverside Rocky,? who became this year?s Cinderella story.
So how did we get to this point?
Well, none of this happens without Holt.
Lopez doesn?t disagree, ?Y? know, at the time, [Holt] had pulled out of the fight we were scheduled to fight one day before June 23rd and I was a little mad but now, I gotta thank him.? Holt pulled out citing the fact that their fight was scheduled in an open-air venue. ?When I heard the reason was because we were going to fight outdoors and it was too hot for him, I thought that was bullsh*t. We were both going to fight outdoors and I wasn?t going to have air conditioning in my corner or anything, so I thought that wasn?t a good reason. It doesn?t matter if you?re a fighter; we?re both going to fight in the same place, in the same ring. It doesn?t matter if it?s indoors, outdoors; we?re both going to have the same advantages or disadvantages.?
For a short spell, they were left without a fight.
Henry Ramirez, who trains and manages Lopez, admitted, ?When Kendall Holt pulled out, initially we sat there in limbo for a couple of days, like, ?What the f**k?s going to go on? Who are we going to get?? There was talk over that weekend, ?Oh, Kendall Holt might be back in.? So he was going back and forth. Dan Goossen was trying to push a Mike Dallas rematch on me, which I was dead set against. To me, there was no purpose.?
Right around that time, Victor Ortiz, who was scheduled to go on June 23rd at the Staples Center needed an opponent after Andre Berto tested positive for a banned substance. ?And the call for Victor Ortiz came and I was 100 percent for it. I had thought about the conversations I had with Eduardo Garcia about the whole Victor Ortiz story, the background behind it and had no hesitations at all,? said Ramirez, who was told by the elder Garcia (whose sons, Robert and Danny, each had a spell training Ortiz) that, as game as Lopez was, there was a possibility of winning this fight. The perception was that while the rugged native of Riverside was tough as leather and would provide a decent run, eventually Ortiz would overpower Lopez and he would be the one to face ?Canelo? in September.
On paper, the fight looked like a bit of a physical mismatch; Ortiz was a bona fide 147-pounder by this stage and Lopez was really a junior welterweight who began his career as a lightweight. The size difference was noticeable at the weigh-in and it was there where Ortiz tried to intimidate Lopez by getting right in his face as close as possible, waiting for Lopez to take a step back It never happened as Lopez stood his ground.
?That?s exactly what it was; he was basically trying to intimidate me,? he said last week after his light workout at the II Feathers Gym in Riverside. ?And with me, there is no intimidating. And size? I could care less about size because I?ve been used to my whole life being the smaller fighter, being the less muscular fighter. So that doesn?t intimidate me and ever since I was little, I grew up where, hey, it doesn?t matter the size or how they look or how tough they act or seem. When you?re in there, it?s really heart and balls that puts you forward.?
While all the tangibles were slanted toward Ortiz, the intangibles like grit and toughness carried Lopez, who, despite being the smaller man, was able to hold his own in some heated exchanges in an enjoyable shootout at the Staples Center. By the middle of the fight, the underdog had captured the audience. Regardless of what was on the scorecards, he was winning the event. Lopez was more than just cannon fodder. ?Going into the fight, obviously, he?s a strong fighter; we?re moving up in weight. We were somewhat worried about his punching power. So it took me about two rounds to get a good feel and after two rounds, I was hurt with some shots, never really felt in too much danger. So it was time to let my hands go and I let my hands go and I felt when I was connecting him, I was hurting him. So I kept on throwing punches,? recalled Lopez.
Recalling his conversations with Mr. Garcia, Ramirez understood that half this battle was just staying in it. As referee Jack Reiss came into their corner to check in on them in the middle of the fight, Ramirez told him, ?Take that sh*t to the other corner.? The key was sticking around and not going away. ?And really, letting Victor know he was going to be in a war,? said Ramirez, ?because as much as it was beating him physically, it was also trying to beat him mentally and I think we were successful in both aspects. Once we knew Jose could take his power, because that was one of the most important factors coming in, the general consensus was that, ?Jose?s going to make it rough but Victor?s going to get him outta there,? and once we knew Jose could take his power and dish right back, we knew we had a shot going down the stretch.?
After a back-and-forth ninth frame that saw Lopez finish with a flourish (and break Ortiz?s jaw), the fight was stunningly halted in Ortiz?s corner. As there was a delay to the start of the 10th and a commotion in the opposite corner, a rather stunned Lopez stood up and raised his arms as if to ask, ?What?s going on?? Surely, another Ortiz meltdown couldn?t have taken place almost three years after he called it a day against Marcos Maidana in the very same building. Lopez admits, ?At the time the fight was stopped, immediately after it was stopped, I really didn?t know what happened. The first thing that came into my mind was, ?This better not be some bullsh*t and I lost somehow.? It took me a few seconds once my corner started rushing into the ring that, ?Hey, the ref?s waving the fight on that side; that means I won,? so it was happiness. It was great. It?s been hard work to get into that position and be the huge underdog and win with a huge upset – it an even better feeling.?
?The Riverside Rocky? was born and after Golden Boy went through Paul Williams, James Kirkland, Austin Trout, Cornelius Bundrage, Terry Norris, Mike McCallum and John ?The Beast? Mugabi as possible dance partners for Alvarez, it was Lopez who eventually landed this assignment. Once again, he is the heavy underdog (as much as 14-1 with some oddsmakers) and if you thought he was dwarfed by Ortiz, now he?s facing a strong junior middleweight.
?That?s going to be a factor,? Lopez conceded. ?He?s not only going to look bigger; he?s going to be bigger. But I feel like if people thought I had power in my last fight, I feel a lot stronger; I feel a lot better. My intensity and energy level are a lot higher. So I think we have the tools to give ?Canelo? some problems.? He believes that he had already outgrown the 140-pound division and had become a welterweight. On this particular day in the gym, there are no signs of a boxer trying to struggle down in size. To the contrary, unlike most fighters who still train at a certain pace leading up to the fight in hopes of cutting weight, Lopez enjoys an easy day at the office, going through an easy regimen on the heavy and speed-bags. ?Now I?m on the opposite side – I have to keep my weight up and it?s completely different type of training that I?ve ever been in. I?ve been able to really train all out and train hard and not have to worry about weight at all in the last week-and-a-half, two weeks before a fight. So it?s a completely different mentality, energy; my training going into the fight has been perfect.?
Still, Lopez is perceived as the significantly smaller man.
?Is there a size difference? Yeah, I think ?Canelo? having fought at ?47 and ?54, I think people have the misinterpretation that Jose?s just a scrawny little guy moving up but he?s a guy who probably should?ve moved to 147 the fight before. But I think one of the things ?Canelo?s? used to is fighting at a bigger man?s pace. One of the things that?s going to have to be key in the fight is trying to push the pace when Jose wants to,? said Ramirez, who believes that not having to cut weight is significant. ?It?s a tremendous advantage,? said Ramirez who, by his association with heavyweight Chris Arreola, knows all about fighters who battle the bulge. ?I?ve seen Jose struggle the last two or three weeks to have to make weight and it?s really tailed off in training camp. Now when he takes a light day, it?s just a light day where he wants to take one. From the start of training camp, it?s just been very constant, very high-paced, very high-energy.?
If Lopez should come out victorious on Saturday night, he will have pulled off two of the biggest upsets of the year (which is almost unprecedented). So just how does he do it again?
?I think a very, very important key is being smart because ?Canelo?s? a very smart fighter,? Lopez explained to Maxboxing. ?I think the difference is that he?s a really good fighter – if you let him be a good fighter. Because I think the fighters that he?s faced so far have pretty much let him take the pace, let him fight his fight, has let him control the fight. So I think the difference is get him off his rhythm, get him off his pace and we?re going to have to get in there, let him know that he?s there for a fight and be smart about it.?
PURSES
For those who give a damn, here are the listed purses for the card at the MGM Grand. These figures were provided by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. But remember this; take all these numbers with a grain of salt as oftentimes fighters receive a different amount as their actual paycheck (for various reasons)…
Saul Alvarez: $2,000,000 Josesito Lopez: $212,500
Jhonny Gonzalez: $40,000 Daniel Ponce de Leon: $100,000
Marcos Maidana: $250,000 Jesus Soto Karass: $80,000
Leo Santa Cruz: $85,000 Eric Morel: $35,000
FLACCO FLURRIES
Regarding Manny Pacquiao?s fight on December 8, according to Bob Arum, they are ?working on it? and nothing has been finalized. But there is a chance that a press conference in L.A. could be staged next Tuesday for an official announcement (finally)…All 19,186 tickets have been sold and accounted for at the Thomas and Mack for Top Rank?s card this weekend, a record for that venue surpassing the 19,151 sold for the bout between Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield in 1999. The gate will surpass $3 million…The on-again/off-again (times three) bout between Guillermo Rigondeaux and Robert Marroquin is back on for Saturday night according to a press release. Of course, that could change by Thursday…Keith Idec of Boxingscene.com reports that the December 22 feature bout on NBC could be a heavyweight tilt between Tomasz Adamek and Odlanier ?SpongeBob? Solis…The Wynn Hotel is the host hotel for Sergio Martinez vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and I get the sense that Joe Francis will not be getting a comped ticket…I?ll say this, the Raiders have the most entertaining punt unit in the NFL…I really like some of the young pass rushers of the Chargers that have been drafted alongside Sean Phillips. Don?t overlook the ?Bolts in the AFC West….Can Joe Flacco take that next step as a QB for the Ravens? As that defense gets older, it has to become his team more and more…I have to say, in watching a lot of ?Martin? reruns recently, the show really wasn?t the same without Gina (Tisha Campbell)…I can be reached at [email protected] 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.
