By Jake Tiernan: IBF featherweight champion Luis Alberto Lopez will defend his belt on the road against Irish fighter Michael Conlan on May 27th on ESPN+ at the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The Lopez-Conlan fight and the undercard will be shown on ESPN+ in the United States and on BT Sport in the UK and Ireland.
Top Rank still hasn’t given up on the two-time Irish Olympian Conlan, as they’re trying to somehow turn him into a world champion.
If Conlan fails to win a title here, Top Rank might need to start thinking about cutting their losses and giving up on Conlan as a lost cause.
Conlan is another example of a fighter that was good at that amateur level, but success didn’t transfer over to the pros, where it requires more power & grit.
This might be Conlan’s best shot at accomplishing that, and still a big ask for him to win over the younger, faster, and tougher Lopez.
If Conlan can drag it to the cards, he has a chance of winning a decision, given his hometown status, but that’s about it. He won’t knock out Lopez because he lacks the pop in his punches, and the Mexican ‘Road Warrior’ has a good chin and has been in opposition with far more power.
The champion Lopez (27-2, 15 KOs) will face challenger Conlan (18-1, 9 KOs) and will likely be dealing with a hostile crowd as he dealt with last December when he traveled to Leeds, England, to rip the IBF 126-lb champion Josh Warrington by a 12 round majority decision.
This is ‘The Road Warrior’ Lopez’s seventh fight in his last twelve contests since 2019 that he’s fought on foreign soil. It’ll be the third time Lopez has fought in the UK, as he’s beaten Isaac Lowe and the aforementioned Warrington.
Conlan, 31, is getting his second title shot opportunity in over a year. He was knocked out in the 12th round last March in a fight against former WBA ‘regular’ featherweight champion Leigh Wood in Nottingham.
While Conlan did fight well in that fight, he fell apart in the championship rounds and was viciously knocked out, causing him to fall out of the ring after getting buried with an avalanche of shots from the heavy-handed Wood.
Lopez doesn’t possess the same power as Wood, but he’s fast, skilled, awkward, and throws shots from unpredictable angles. Also, Lopez has enough pop in his punches to potentially stop Conlan.
“The passionate Belfast fans will pack The SSE Arena hoping to lift their hero, Michael Conlan, to a world title. I also know that Luis Alberto Lopez thrives in enemy territory and will not relinquish his title without a tremendous fight,” said Top Rank boss Bob Arum.
Lopez’s best wins:
Josh Warrington
Isaac Lowe
Gabriel Flores Jr
Andy Vences
Ray Ximenez
“I am a road warrior. Traveling to my opponent’s home country doesn’t faze me,” Lopez said. “I won my world title in Leeds, and now it’s time to defend it in Belfast.”