Notebook: Teofimo Lopez-Jose Pedraza in works for Heisman Trophy night

Conlan set for another Belfast fight; Quick hits; Show and tell

Oct 12, 2022

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The plan all along has been for former unified lightweight world champion Teofimo Lopez to headline Top Rank’s ESPN card at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Dec. 10 following the network’s presentation of college football’s Heisman Trophy.

Now, Lopez has his likely opponent in Jose Pedraza, Lopez manager David McWater told Fight Freaks Unite on Tuesday. He said Top Rank has sent the contract to Pedraza, a former junior lightweight and lightweight titlist, who now campaigns at junior welterweight.

“Pedraza is guy who is always in the mix and Teofimo only wants to fight the very best guys,” McWater said. “Obviously, having the Heisman lead in is terrific and something Teofimo and all of Team Lopez cherishes.”

It will be the third time Lopez will fight on the card following the Heisman Trophy presentation but it will be his first time as the headliner.

In 2018, Lopez announced his arrival with a crushing first-round knockout of Mason Menard on the undercard of Vasiliy Lomachenko’s decision over Pedraza to unify two lightweight belts. In 2019, Lopez knocked out Richard Commey in the second round to win the IBF lightweight title on the undercard of Terence Crawford’s welterweight title defense against Egidijus
Kavaliauskas.

After knocking out Commey, Lopez would go on to score a major upset by outpointing Lomachenko to further unify the 135-pound division in October 2020. Thirteen months and several delays later, Lopez lost the belts by decision in a major upset to George Kambosos Jr. in a fight of the year contender.

On Aug. 13, Lopez (17-1, 13 KOs), 25, of Las Vegas, returned by moving up to junior welterweight and knocking out Pedro Campa in the seventh round.

Pedraza (29-4-1, 14 KOs), 33, of Puerto Rico, is 3-2-1 since moving up to 140 pounds in 2019. He is coming off a spirited 10-round split draw with Commey on Aug. 27 and got the fight with Lopez over fellow Top Rank contender Arnold Barboza (27-0, 10 KOs), 30, of Los Angeles, who has been calling Lopez out for months.

Top Rank said it would have been happy to make either fight for Lopez, against Pedraza or Barboza, but Team Lopez preferred Pedraza.

“Bigger name, better fighter,” McWater said in comparing Pedraza to Barboza.

The undercard is likely to include appearances by three of the best prospects in Top Rank’s deep stable: heavyweight Jared Anderson (12-0, 12 KOs), lightweight and 2020 U.S. Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn Davis (6-0, 5 KOs) and junior middleweight Xander Zayas (14-0, 10 KOs).

Conlan back in Belfast

Featherweight contender Michael Conlan will return to action in his hometown of Belfast, Northern Ireland, for his third fight of the year on Dec. 10, he announced on social media.

Conlan will face former European featherweight and bantamweight champion Karim Guerfi at the SSE Arena Belfast in a 10-rounder.

“Back to Belfast!! We go again, December 10th,” Conlan posted on Twitter. “We had to come back to the SSE after an amazing night in August! We push on back to titles.”

On Aug. 6, Conlan (17-1, 8 KOs), 30, a two-time Irish Olympian and 2012 bronze medalist, knocked down former world title challenger Miguel Marriaga three times en route to a one-sided 10-round decision win at the SSE Arena.

Conlan’s victory over Marriaga came five months after an epic, but losing battle with Leigh Wood in a challenge for the WBA “regular” featherweight title in Wood’s hometown of Nottingham, England on March 12.

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Conlan knocked Wood down in the first round, cut and bruised his face and got knocked down himself in the 11th round but was leading on all three scorecards going into the final round when Wood authored a dramatic comeback and knocked Conlan out of the ring for the KO win in a leading fight of the year of the candidate.

Guerfi (31-6, 9 KOs), 35, of France, lost the European featherweight title by ninth-round knockout to Jordan Gill on Feb. 27 but rebounded for a 10-round decision win over Ricardo Mercado on July 1.

Quick hits

Oscar Rivas’ first WBC bridgerweight title defense is off again. He was slated to face Poland’s Luckaz Rozanski (14-0, 13 KOs) in a fight that saw the date move from Aug. 13 to Oct. 15 to Nov. 5, first in Cali, Colombia, Rivas’ hometown, and then Barranquilla, Colombia. But various issues forced the Colombian promoter to cancel the show, Rivas promoter Yvon Michel told Fight Freaks Unite. Michel said the hope is Rivas (28-1, 19 KOs), 35, who has boxed his entire career out of Montreal, will finally have the homecoming fight in March. Before that, however, he likely will face all-action mandatory challenger Alen Babic (11-0, 10 KOs), 31, of Croatia. “We are in an early stage of discussions,” Michel said of the Babic talks. “Ideally speaking, we would keep Rozanski for Colombia and do Babic before, probably in Montreal.”

The Probellum card headlined by Sunny Edwards making his IBF flyweight mandatory defense against Felix Alvarado on Nov. 11 at Utilita Arena in Sheffield, England, will be available as a streaming pay-per-view on FITE in the United States, according to Probellum. Edwards (18-0, 4 KOs), 26, of England, will be making his third defense when he meets Alvarado (38-2, 33 KOs), 33, of Nicaragua, the former IBF junior flyweight titleholder. Alvarado vacated his 108-pound title last year and has won two fights in a row, including his first bout at 112 pounds in May.

Former WBC interim bantamweight titlist Reymart Gaballo (24-1, 20 KOs), 26, will face Filipino countryman Ricardo Sueno (11-6-4, 4 KOs), 28, on Oct. 29 in Gaballo’s hometown of General Santos City, Philippines, Sanman Boxing announced. The fight will be Gaballo’s first since he suffered his only defeat by fourth-round body-shot knockout in a mandatory fight with then-WBC full titlist Nonito Donaire in December in Carson, California.

Show and tell

Hall of Famer Juan Manuel Marquez and deserving future Hall of Famer Timothy Bradley Jr. are best known for their series of fights with the legendary Manny Pacquiao, but they also squared off with each other in a significant HBO PPV fight. Bradley had gotten a massively controversial decision win over Pacquiao in their first fight to claim his welterweight title and then defended it by decision in an absolutely incredible slugfest with Ruslan Provodnikov that was the 2013 fight of the year. For his next defense, Bradley was matched with Marquez, who was coming off his unforgettable one-punch, face-first knockout of Pacquiao in the fourth and final fight of their historic series.

Bradley-Marquez turned out to be more boxing match than action fight with Bradley’s movement — and his right hand — giving Marquez problems as he denied Marquez the chance make history as the first Mexican boxer to win a world title in five weights classes. In the end, the judges gave Bradley a well-deserved split decision, 115-113 and 116-112, while one judge had it 115-113 for Marquez. I was ringside covering the fight at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas and had it 115-113 for Bradley, who notched what I consider his biggest victory (because I don’t count the absurd decision he received in the first Pacquiao fight). The fight was on Oct. 12, 2013 — nine years ago on Wednesday. I have a few different posters from the fight but here is one from sponsor Tecate in my collection.