Josesito Lopez
BOXERS ARE CLOSELY GUIDED, SAUL ALVAREZ IS “GUARDED”
San Francisco, CA– The job of a manager and promoter is to get your guy/gal the most money for the least amount of risk. But in the case of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, that concept seems to go a bit deeper. First he wanted to fight James “No Beard” Kirkland, a pressure fighter (who doesn’t take a punch well) that was losing against Carlos Molina several weeks ago before either the Texas State Athletic Commission or referee Jon Schorle, and seeing Schorle isn’t returning emails these days, the question as to who actually stopped the fight goes unanswered. Paul Williams is no longer fighting after a motorcyle wreck after he was OK’d. Then they lined up Victor Ortiz, a welterweight (147 lbs) who was coming off a knockout loss to Floyd Mayweather to face Alvarez for his WBC 154 lb. title. But “Humpty Dumpty” AKA Victor Ortiz fell off the wall and broke his jaw against jr. welterweight (140) Josesito Lopez in what might be the biggest upset of the year thus far.
ORTIZ WAS LUNCHMEAT, LOPEZ IS LESS!
Ortiz, who suffered a broken jaw against the physically smaller Lopez, this while Alvarez was ringside looking at Victor like he were lunchmeat, took it to Ortiz and forced him to quit after nine completed rounds. Well, if Victor was supposed to be “lunchmeat” for Alvarez, if the WBC and Team Alvarez are serious, then they will take on Josesito Lopez, who is not lunchmeat, just two small slices of bread. What the WBC and Golden Boy Promotions are doing to “coddle” the greener than guacamole Alvarez is in itself a crime against the sport of boxing. Although Lopez will weigh in over 147 even, thus making him a jr. middleweight, why doesn’t Alvarez fight Vic Darchinyan or somebody in the 118-122 lb. range, I mean they have as much chance as Lopez.
LOPEZ’S CHANCES FROM DON KING: “SLIM AND NONE, AND SLIM JUST LEFT TOWN”
Saul “El Pollo” Alvarez
Having been on the boxing perch for many a moon, I remember when Mexican gladiators were “taken care of” by the WBC, but in it seems like WBC czar Jose Sulaiman is “breast feeding” the popular “Canelo” himself. Recalling the ascension of Mexican icon, the late Salvador Sanchez, the WBC tried to baby him but the fighters that were ranked around him were of exceptional talent. Azumah Nelson, Wilfredo Gomez, hell even Ruben Castillo would be rated a level higher than Josesito Lopez and these guys were at or within a few pounds of Sanchez. Naturally speaking, there’s a 14-pound weight difference at the weigh in alone. Seeing Alvarez puts on ten pounds after scaling, matching Josesito Lopez against him would almost be akin to fighting a fighter almost three weight divisions smaller.
LOPEZ WILL GET A HALF MILLION OR MORE!
It’s a “win-win” situation for both sides as Alvarez gets a “set up” type of fight, while Lopez earns more money than he could really dream about at his size and this stage of his career. If they want to put this on CBS TV, and they are talking about it, the discrepancy in size is enough to get Lopez seriously hurt. But that’s the mindset of Golden Boy and the WBC, screw tomorrow, or any future this struggling sport but prospering business might be in, as long as we achieve the goal of keeping Alvarez unbeaten, the end will have justified the means. Sad as it might be, nobody really gives a spit about boxers in this country, that’s why we need a Federal Boxing Commission.
Pedro Fernandez