By Eric Baldwin: Former two division world champion Juan Manuel Lopez (34-5, 31 KOs) weighed in on Friday for his fight against WBO super bantamweight champion Wilfredo Vasquez Jr. (24-6-1, 19 KOs) for their fight on pay-per-view this Saturday night at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum, San Juan, Puerto Rico. The 33-year-old Lopez weighed in at 128.6lbs. His opponent 32-year-old Vasquez weighed in at 129lbs.
This is going to be a good fight to see which of the two fighters has anything left in the tank at this point in their careers. Judging by the many losses the two fighters have faced in the last tail end of their careers, I’d say that neither can do much. Vasquez Jr. has lost three out of his last four fights, and five out of his last eight fights.
Vasquez was beaten twice in 2015 in losing to Fernando Vargas and Rafael Rivera. The good news is that Vasquez wasn’t knocked out by either of them. He made it tough for them, but unfortunately he still lost. Lopez hasn’t fought in two years since his 2nd round knockout loss to Jesus Cuellar in September 2014.
As bad as Lopez was fighting at the time, he probably had no business being inside the ring with someone as young, strong and talented as Cuellar. The thing is Lopez was far from old at the time. He was only 31, but he’d already left his best years behind three years earlier when he was stopped in the 8th round by Orlando Salido in 2011. Lopez lost the rematch to Salido by a 10th round knockout in 2012. It’s been downhill for Lopez ever since.
With Lopez, it’s hard to say what caused him to stop being effective in the ring. Was it his age, the punishment he’d taken in fights, or was it a simple case of him putting on too much weight in between fights? My guess is Lopez put on a lot of weight when not fighting, and it was tough on him to lose the weight to get back down to featherweight.
Lopez likely still has a lot of boxing skills even now, but the question is whether his punch resistance is still there. Lopez was stopped in his last two fights by Cuellar and Francisco Vargas. There’s no shame in Lopez getting stopped by Cuellar and Vargas, because those two are top fighters today.
In Lopez’s fight before the Vargas fight, he stopped Daniel Ponce De Leon in the 2nd round in March 2014. That’s pretty impressive, because De Leon was a tough guy in his prime. However, he was clearly at the end of his career by the time he faced Lopez for the second time. Lopez knocked out De Leon in one round back in 2008. It was impressive that Lopez was able to KO De Leon early in their rematch.
Lopez had the better career compared to Vasquez. He should be able to beat him if he has anything left in the tank. However, it’s unknown how much he has left at this point. If Lopez is going to get a knockout, it’s going to happen early. If he can’t get to Vasquez by the 5th round, he’ll likely be knocked out himself.