By Dan Ambrose: The World Boxing Organization will be lifting their 1 year suspension of Juan Manuel Lopez (31-2, 28 KO’s) a little early to allow the 29-year-old Lopez fight in December instead of when his suspension is supposed to have run out in March of 2013. The WBO also agreed to start ranking Lopez again. This comes after Lopez was given a year suspension for having accused a referee of having a gambling problem following his 10th round TKO loss to WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido last March.

Even with the WBO allowing Lopez to get back in the ring earlier than expected, Lopez still has lost 9 months of his career and you have to wonder whether he’ll ever be the same. He’s already lost two out of his last three fights and not really looked consistently good since 2009. Lopez was almost knocked out by Rogers Mtagwa in October 2009. Lopez was dropped in the 1st round in his next fight by Bernabe Concepcion, and staggered by Rafael Marquez in their fight in November 2010.

It maybe that Lopez’s promoter Bob Arum is going to have to keep him away from guys like Mikey Garcia and Orlando Salido. Ideally, Lopezx should move back down to super bantamweight where he dominated most of his opposition. However, Lopez is getting bigger and he might not even be able to make featherweight anymore, let alone super bantamweight. At super featherweight, Lopez will be lost and won’t do much unless Arum puts him in with the weaker champions and just looks to get him money fights.

At this point I think Lopez has seen better days. Arum needs to either cut his losses and cash out or look to put him in with weaker opposition to get him winning again. It doesn’t matter if Lopez fights anyone good or not, his Puerto Rican fans will come to see him in high numbers.