By Allan Fox: Welterweight Josesito Lopez (31-6, 18 KO’s) will be fighting tonight against 32-year-old Aaron Martinez (19-2-1, 4 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout at the Agua Caliente Casino, in Rancho Mirage, California, USA. Lopez, 29, has lost 3 out of his last 5 fights, and he’s at the point where he needs to some drastic to turn things around. The Martinez fight won’t do much because Martinez isn’t a 1st tier fighter and this more of a stay busy fight for Lopez. However, Lopez needs a solid win because he’s not looked good recently in defeats against Marcos Maidana and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
Lopez can’t let Martinez make this a difficult fight, because he’s clearly a level above Martinez in the power and talent department. A loss for Lopez in this fight could hurt his chances of being useful as a gatekeeper/trial horse type of fighter for other big named fighters. Right now, Lopez is doing well in getting fights against the big names and giving them a decent fight before losing.
In Lopez’s last fight, he defeated Mike Arnaoutis by an 8 round technical decision last December in a harder than expected fight for Lopez. He was knocked down in the 3rd round by the light hitting Arnaotis, and he was fortunate that Arnaotis didn’t have the power to finish him off the way that Canelo and Maidana did.
Lopez had a big win over Victor Ortiz in June of 2012 in breaking his jaw in two places in getting a 9th round stoppage. Lopez was brought in as the opponent and he was expected to be run over by the stronger and more accomplished Ortiz, but he was able to take the fight to him and break his jaw. Lopez was losing the fight at the time of the stoppage, and he likely would have lost on the cards if Ortiz hadn’t quit on his stool in between the 9th and 10th rounds.
Martinez has never beaten a quality fighter before, but he does have a loss to Jessie Vargas from two years ago in losing a 12 round decision.
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