What will it take to make Juan Manuel Lopez a bigger star in America?

[boxerbadboy]

We know he is up there in the boxing stratosphere because we can definitely hear his punches as they land. But unless you are a diehard, it is hard to get a fix on exactly where he is. Most consider him a talented fighter who is on the verge of superstar status, but the casual fan is finding it hard to pinpoint his exact location.
The names Gomez, Trinidad and Cotto were and still are names that the casual fan can recognize. Why isn’t Juanma? Ask any Puerto Rican and he can tell you who he is. But the answer is a little bit different here in America.
Friends of mine, who generally know a little bit about boxing, can tell me about Sanchez versus Gomez, Trinidad versus Vargas and Cotto versus Quintana. But when I tell them that one of the fights I am most looking forward to is Lopez versus Yuriorkus Boxingnotes.com/Home

[:::PSL:::]

He's a rising star. He'll be a world known someday. I think he's already big in states.

[killersheep]

Making sure he doesn't get KOed would be a big help, he's doing the right things though to be fair, he's taking on good challenges, and has a TV friendly appearance and attitude.

[TitoFan]

We know he is up there in the boxing stratosphere because we can definitely hear his punches as they land. But unless you are a diehard, it is hard to get a fix on exactly where he is. Most consider him a talented fighter who is on the verge of superstar status, but the casual fan is finding it hard to pinpoint his exact location.
The names Gomez, Trinidad and Cotto were and still are names that the casual fan can recognize. Why isn’t Juanma? Ask any Puerto Rican and he can tell you who he is. But the answer is a little bit different here in America.
Friends of mine, who generally know a little bit about boxing, can tell me about Sanchez versus Gomez, Trinidad versus Vargas and Cotto versus Quintana. But when I tell them that one of the fights I am most looking forward to is Lopez versus Yuriorkus Boxingnotes.com/Home

Good post and welcome to the forum. Basically he needs to keep fighting the big names. He's off to a great start and like you said... he's already a household name here in P.R. And as Killersheep said, he's got the personality to go along with his star status.

[Spicoli]

He'll do fine and made huge strides vs Marquez. Not only in the ring,making adjustments but equally showed class in aftermath. Personally I think he's well ahead of Gamboa in both category's.

[Kel]

Speak English.

[El Kabong]

Speak English.

It didn't help Calzaghe become popular

I think a fight vs Gamboa is bound ot make a star out of somebody but if JML can put a whuppin on JM Marquez then he's going to get a lot more attention paid to him.

I think if he fought Billy Dib he'd gain a huge group of fans because we all want to see Dib get KTFO

[Kel]

Speak English.

It didn't help Calzaghe become popular

I think a fight vs Gamboa is bound ot make a star out of somebody but if JML can put a whuppin on JM Marquez then he's going to get a lot more attention paid to him.

I think if he fought Billy Dib he'd gain a huge group of fans because we all want to see Dib get KTFO

I mean just for the sake of hyping fights, it would help to speak Englsh. The Margarito/Pac 24/7 has been pretty shit because Margo can't speak good English and it's all translated.

If you can speak English I think it does you wonders in America.

[Stale_hotdog]

Speak English.

It definitely wouldn't hurt his chances at becoming more popular. I think it made Cotto even more appealing to U.S fans along with his exciting style.

[Rantcatrat]

He's only one or two more fights away from super-stardom. What he needs is a career-defining victory showcased on HBO. If he beat Chris John in the beginning of next year and then went on to beat Gamboa or Marquez in a rematch, he'd be there in my opinion.

[Mar]

If I were Lopez I wouldn't care what people out here thought. Dude just beat the best guy ratings wise in his division and people are still giving the kid shit because rafa had a semi valid excuse. Lopez took a bunch of punches from one of the great trilogy combatants and was still not only standing but puttin hands on rafa big time. People want this guy to be perfect ..........why? So he can get treated like others who have perfected their game like Floyd and the klits ?? One is from here and the others can't even get their fights on tv here. Juanma is from pr and they love him there to me that'd be more important . Come here to fight and make cash sure ... But try to win us over I'd take it or leave it. He's already on ppv and sponsored by dodge I'd say he's doin ok.

[luvfightgame]

It's hard for the smaller guys to get a big following in the U.S.

Pac is very unusual, and it blew up because of beating ODH. The problem JML has is there's no huge star to beat in his weight range.

[:::PSL:::]

Caballero says Lopez does not carry Puerto Rican warrior spirit

[J_Undisputed]

Gamboa losing or dropping off the map.

I haven't taken to Lopez. The enthusiasm is the same as it was for me and Cotto. The search for the next Puerto Rican superstar meant, find the next guy with potential and hype him up. Lopez has a decent amount of technical skill. The problem for him thus far is that everyones been eyeballing Gamboa because of talent.
So far we've witnessed Gamboa get dropped once of twice and get up and tough it out and eventually impose his will. It would appear that Lopez is doing the same thing, but you can tell when he gets clipped.. He'd rather be somewhere else. When they headlined the same card and they asked both about a fight in the post fight interview. Gamboa said he wanted it... Lopez wanted someone .. anyone to defer to. Even after the Marquez fight, Lopez at first was like.. "well .. uhhh.. we might um have plans... and I uh...." People took that as a loosely translated "Are you nuts, this guy almost knocked me out..." The fight itself says a lot. Marquez had just been through 3 wars, injured his shoulder and for a good part of the fight was a one trick pony deliberately taking shots to create openings for the left hook... It's kind of hard to boost Juanma's image off of that victory.

Lopez is still a technically skilled guy. I wouldn't call him chinny as its been suggested. But there are a lot of holes in his game. What he lacks in talent, charisma, grasp of the English language (as been suggested also), hes not making up for with anything spectacular. Gamboa can't speak a word of either, but has managed to get a lot of attention, even if his last fight wasn't as exciting as people are used to seeing... because they have the idea if he wanted to turn it up, he could. People don't get that impression with Lopez because many of the times where he's been challenged, tested, or had to go into the trenches willing (not being dragged there), he's seemed rather tentative. Just my opinion of course, I could be wrong.

[Julius Rain]

Work on his defense and box more. I think in a few years Juanma could be p4p King. He has to keep taking tough fights and go up in weight if he can.