By Keith Idec

Josesito Lopez’s promoters are as offended as Lopez by Golden Boy Promotions scheduling Victor Ortiz’s fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez before Lopez and Ortiz box June 23 in Los Angeles.

“I don’t like any promoter or any fighter going out there and announcing another fight, when they’ve got more than what they think they’ve got in front of them,” Dan Goossen, Lopez’s co-promoter, said. “There’s something bad about that. I just take a little umbrage with [that]. People forget that Josesito … you look at his record, of his [four] losses one’s been majority and two have been split. All three fights were on the home turf of the people that he received those decisions [against]. In one, he had the majority decision winner down twice.”

The 27-year-old Lopez (29-4, 17 KOs, 1 NC), of Riverside, Calif., lost that majority decision to New York’s Edgar Santana (26-4, 17 KOs) in April 2008 in Miami. His two split-decision defeats came against Las Vegas residents Wes Ferguson (21-4-1, 6 KOs) and Jessie Vargas (19-0, 9 KOs). Both fights took place in Las Vegas.

Lopez also lost his third pro fight, a four-round unanimous decision to Rodrigo Lopez (6-1), nine years ago in Las Vegas.

He is motivated, however, by this huge opportunity, a Showtime main event from Staples Center, and Golden Boy’s announcement Tuesday that Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KOs), of Oxnard, Calif., will challenge Mexico’s Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KOs) for the WBC’s 154-pound title Sept. 15 in Las Vegas (Showtime Pay-Per-View).

“Josesito Lopez has been dying for an opportunity like this, to be able to showcase himself in a main event, on a network like Showtime,” said Alex Camponovo, general manager for Thompson Boxing Promotions, Lopez’s co-promoter. “And now I think he’s going to have a little bit more of a push, knowing that they’re looking way past him. He is ready for this fight, he has been training really hard and I know he’s going to take this opportunity and maybe mess up those plans that Golden Boy has to put Ortiz [against] Canelo Alvarez.”

A clearly agitated Goossen added, “We’ve got a pretty damn good fighter in Josesito Lopez. I just thought it was very disrespectful and Josesito’s going to go out there now and show how disrespectful it was on June 23rd.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com.

Tags: Josesito Lopez , Victor Ortiz , Ortiz-Lopez , Ortiz vs Lopez