Amir Khan vs. Josesito Lopez still in play

By Boxing News - 02/22/2013 - Comments

lopez112By Scott Gilfoid: It was thought that welterweight Josesito Lopez (30-5, 18 KO’s) was out of the running for a bout against former IBF/WBO light welterweight champion Amir Khan (27-3, 19 KO’s) for the end of April, but Lopez’s promoter Ken Thompson is saying that he’s still looking to make fight with Khan.

Thompson told esnewsreporting.com “It’s on its way right now. I’ll be put together.”

I’ve got a couple of thoughts here on this. Khan reportedly wants Lopez to drain down to 140 or near 140 to make that fight. Lopez is now a welterweight, and not a particularly strong one at that.

If you ask him to melt down to a weight that he can no longer comfortably fight at, then the chances are extremely high that Lopez will be weaker for having done this. Remember, Lopez isn’t a big puncher. He’s probably about as strong as Khan’s last opponent lightweight Carlos Molina in terms of punching power.

What made Lopez good in the past was his ability to absorb huge punishment in order to land his less than powerful punches. If you drain him down to 140 or near 140, the he’s going to be even weaker than he already is.

What good is that? I mean, where is the victory in beating someone like that? Lopez is coming off a one-sided beating at the hands of WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last September.

Alvarez stopped Lopez in the 5th round in a fight where he put him down three times. My question is why does Khan want to fight a guy that’s coming of a knockout loss? I know Lopez did beat Victor Ortiz on an injury last year, but Lopez was going to lose that fight had Ortiz not suffered a broken jaw. Ortiz was ahead on the scorecards and if not for the broken jaw, he wins that fight.

I’d much prefer to see Khan fight someone that actually has a chance to beat him, like Marcos Maidana or Lucas Matthysse. Is Showtime televises Khan vs. Lopez, then they’re making it too easy for Khan by letting him fight easy opposition to fulfill his three-fight contract with them.

Khan’s first fight was against a non-ranked lightweight instead of a ranked light weight from his own division, and now if this fight takes place, Khan will be fighting a guy that was just stopped in his last fight.



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