(Photo credit: Ester Lin/Showtime) By Jason Kim: WBC Silver welterweight champion Josesito Lopez (30-4, 18 KO’s) needs to plan on using a ton of movement this Saturday night against WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. By now, Lopez will have scouted out Alvarez’s past fights and noted what his weaknesses are.
But Lopez can’t afford to get brave or macho against Alvarez, because at the end of the day he just does not have the power or the legitimate size to match Alvarez in the power department. If Lopez tries the brave toe-to-toe style of fighting that he did in his last fight against Victor Ortiz last June, Lopez is going to be in for a world of hurt. That kind of gung-ho type stuff might work against flawed fighters like Ortiz, but it’s not going to work against a young and solid fighter like Alvarez.
What Lopez needs to do to win this fight is to use constant movement, quick punches and an in and out style of attacking the slow-moving Alvarez. Lopez can’t beat him by slugging with him, and he’s probably making a big mistake by adding so much weight.
Alvarez will probably weigh 165 lbs when he steps inside the ring on Saturday, but that doesn’t mean that Lopez should try and match him in the weight department. The reason being is that Lopez has been fighting at 140 his entire career with the exception of his fight agaisnt Ortiz. Adding a ton of weight and then fighting someone as good as Alvarez will leave Lopez an exhausted fighter by the 2nd half of the fight and vulnerable to getting knocked out.
Once Lopez can no longer move around the ring, he’s just going to be another stationary fighter without much power and a long torso that will make a big target for Alvarez’s heavy shots. It’ll be brutal if Lopez’s legs aren’t working for him in this fight. This is why it’s imperative that Lopez stays on the move for the entire fight and uses his speed to attack Alvarez and get away quickly.
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