Juan Manuel Lopez will challenge WBO world featherweight champion Mikey Garcia for his title on June 15 in Dallas. It will be the first defense for Garcia since he captured the title from Orlando Salido by unanimous decision in January. The win improved his record to 31-0 with 26 knockouts.
Lopez, of course lost the title to Salido back in 2011, and failed to recapture it when they had a rematch the following year. Following that fight he was suspended for a year for accusing the referee of betting on the contest. After serving the suspension, he returned with back to back wins and somehow finds himself once again in a title fight.
The former champion understands the challenge in front of him and says that the bout is the most important of his career. Speaking through his interpreter, he said at a news conference on Thursday that he is looking to “prove I belong at this elite level.”
That bit of humility is a bit out of character for Juan Manuel Lopez considering he has spent much of his career acting rather entitled, despite not much more than a lot of unfulfilled hype behind him. Although his record is impressive at 33-2, he has shown glaring weaknesses in his game that a solid, yet not spectacular fighter in Salido was able to exploit twice.
In Mikey Garcia, Lopez will meet a fighter who is on one of the biggest rolls in boxing. When he claimed the title from Salido in January, it was the ninth straight opponent of his that failed to make the final bell. The fight will take place at the American Airlines Center and should go a long way towards proving whether Garcia is a legitimate champion or if Juan Manuel Lopez is as good as he always thought he was.
