By Allan Fox: The World Boxing Council has done something about welterweight Josesito Lopez (30-4, 18 KO’s) not being ranked in the junior middleweight division, and they’ve decided to give him a #4 ranking in the 154 pound division. Lopez can now go into his September 15th fight against WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KO’s) with a legitimate ranking so that boxing fans can’t say that Alvarez is cherry picking an opponent from a division below him to defend his title against.
However, it would have been a lot nicer had the WBC ranked Lopez in the junior middleweight division before the fight had been made, because by then it just looked like Alvarez and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotion were just looking for another smaller fighter for Alvarez to beat in order to keep him from losing.
We’ve already seen Alvarez face smaller fighters in the past with him taking on welterweight Matthew Hatton last year when Alvarez was fighting for the vacant WBC junior middleweight division. It’s interesting that Hatton was allowed to fight for the vacant WBC 154 pound title when he wasn’t ranked in the division at the time. We’ve also seen Alvarez face guys like Alfonso Gomez and Jose Miguel Cotto in the past. Those guys didn’t have the size to fight Alvarez either and were beaten down.
It’s likely that Lopez will lose his ranking in the junior middleweight division if and when he loses to Alvarez on the 15th of September. Lopez will then resume fighting in either the light welterweight division or the welterweight division where he rightfully belongs.
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