He's been matched ridiculously tough in his last three fights and he's definitely a 140 pounder. However the three fights have made his name and he was mainly responsible for the sellout crowd on Saturday. That card sold more tickets than Rafa Izzy 3 which was at the same venue.
He's now got three things in his favour.
He's made a reputation as a great fighter to watch and will sell tickets because of this.
He can go back to 140, fight somebody he can beat and look good against and then Golden Boy can carefully manage him at 140 for their mutual benefit.
Golden Boy say that they're stealing from UFC now in that they're not worried if fighters have losses so long as they're in competitive exciting fights that people want to watch and networks want to buy. This is all good news for guys like Lopez. I don't think he'll ever measure up to Gatti but he'll be in a bunch of memorable fights and make some money in the rest of his career compared to how it could have gone.
Face it, who looks to have the best prospects for a decent future career if not winning much in the way of titles, Lopez or Gamboa?
Bookmarks