Fighter of the Week (5/22-5/28): Luis Alberto Lopez
On a weekend that was absolutely loaded with high-level and world championship featherweight boxing, one 126-pounder, in particular, separated himself from the pack. The incredible story of Lusi Alberto Lopez of Mexicali, Mexico, continues. The 5 foot 4 inch, 29-year old IBF Featherweight champ has now won 11 fights in a row and 12 out of 13, with the one loss, a tight decision to Rueben Villa, back in 2019. On Saturday night in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the backyard of legendary fan favorite Michael Conlan, Lopez absolutely slayed the fan favorite over five one-sided rounds to make the inaugural defense of his world title a successful one, moving his record to 28-2 (16), and take home our Fighter of the Week award,
This has been an unprecedented and unexpected run from the 29-year-old Mexican. The first time we saw Lopez on a big stage was back in early 2019 when he was used as what was supposed to be a tough test for Ray Ximenez, a somewhat touted but largely unknown prospect that Roy Jones Jr Promotions was building. A competitive fight ended prematurely due to an accidental head-butt which lead to a points victory for Lopez. At that time, even matchmaker Guy Taylor never thought Lopez could take it to the world championship level. Lopez dropped a close decision to Reuben Villa on the Showtime SHOBOX series a few months later. At that point, it looked like Lopez was a fringe guy that could serve as a stepping stone for prospects, a test to pass, but little more. That's when the Mexicali native got cooking. He beat undefeated Christian Baez to end 2019, then in 2020, he defeated Andy Vences, then moved up to 130 and beat down undefeated TopRank prospect Gabe Flores and stopped Isaac Lowe. That set up his world title shot with Josh Warrington. As Lopez has so often done, he went into the backyard of his opponent and pulled an upset. Lopez is now, perhaps, the best 126-pounder in the world and ought to be knocking on the door of pound-for-pound lists.
There are few fights that Lopez should entertain, and he shouldn't be an underdog in any of them. Lopez is on the right side of the 126-pound street and the obvious next fight for him ought to be Cuban world Champ Robeisy Ramirez, both champs on the Top Rank side, it's a unification fight, and it got a nice little buzz to it, with the Mexican Style vs Cuban School match up. Additionally, a fight with Leigh Wood should also be on the table. Again this is another unification bout with another British fighter, and Lopez has no issue with road-dogging it and beating up people in their backyard. The WBC champ is Rey Vargas, who is on the PBC side of the street and will likely be fighting Brandon Figueroa. So that more than likely isn't going to happen. The other option for Lopez is to move up to 130, a weight he got a win over Flores at, and look to make a fight with Emanuel Navarrete.
