Luis Alberto Lopez beat an area hero together with his fifth-round knockout of Conlan. (Picture by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile through Getty Photos)
Appears to be like like Luis Lopez’s subsequent protection of his world championship belt will are available in the USA.
Lopez will doubtless defend his IBF featherweight title towards Joet Gonzalez on Sept. 15, a supply confirmed to The Ring Thursday morning. ESPN’s Mike Coppinger was the primary to disclose the story.
The 12-round bout will happen in Corpus Christi, Texas, at a location but to be decided, and will likely be streamed dwell on an ESPN platform.
Lopez, who resides in Mexicali, Mexico, is presently ranked No. 1 by The Ring at 126 kilos.
Lopez, 29 (28-2, 16 KOs), final fought Could 27, stopping Michael Conlan within the fifth spherical. The battle befell in Conlan’s hometown of Belfast, Northern Eire. In his earlier bout on Dec. 10, Lopez traveled to Josh Warrington’s hometown of Leeds, England, successful a hard-fought majority determination.
Lopez’s final battle in the USA was on August 20, which was a knockout victory over Colombian Yeison Vargas in San Diego, Calif., in a really busy battle.
It has been over 4 years since Lopez final misplaced. Lopez misplaced an in depth unanimous determination to once-beaten contender and former world title challenger Ruben Villa.
Gonzalez (26-3, 15 KOs), who resides within the Los Angeles suburb of Glendora, defeated Enrique Vivas by unanimous determination in his final battle on April 1. In his earlier bout on July 23 final 12 months, Gonzalez misplaced by cut up determination to former world junior featherweight title holder Isaac Dogboe.
The 29-year-old has twice challenged for the WBO featherweight world title. Gonzalez misplaced to Shakur Stevenson in October 2019, dropping once more almost two years later, once more by determination, to Emanuel Navarrete.
Gonzalez is managed by Frank Espinoza and is the older brother of junior welterweight prospect Jousce Gonzalez.
Francisco A. Salazar has been writing for The Ring since October 2013 and has been overlaying boxing in Southern California and internationally since 2000. Francisco additionally covers boxing for the Star newspaper in Ventura County, California. He might be reached at (email protected)
