Adam Lopez Looks To Continue His Streak in Philadelphia

By Francisco Salazar

Rather than wait to fight in 2017, junior featherweight contender Adam Lopez returns to action tonight in a stay-busy fight.

Lopez squares off against veteran Carlos Valcarcel in an eight round bout at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Earlier this year, Lopez (15-0-1, 7 KOs) was mentioned about fighting for a world title bout. Those talks subsided after his last bout when he fought to a 10 round split decision draw against Roman Reynoso on July 22.

Lopez did win regional title belts with victories over Mario Munoz and Eliecer Aquino over the last year and a half. He scored a second round knockout over former world titleholder Eric Aiken on December 12.

Lopez is ranked number four by the WBA.

Valcarcel (14-8-4, 5 KOs) has lost his last two bouts. He did not answer the bell for the eighth round in his loss to Abraham Lopez on January 29 and was stopped by Erick De Leon in the sixth round of his last bout on June 25.

Unbeaten welterweight Ed Brown will face the toughest challenge of his young career when he faces Albert Mensah in an eight round junior welterweight bout.

Brown (19-0, 16 KOs) has been very active over the last year and a half, having fought 16 times. Tonight will be his fourth fight of 2016.

In his last bout on September 30, the Chicago resident stopped Robert Acevedo in the third round. H has stopped six of his last seven bouts.

Mensah (29-5-1, 13 KOs) has not fought since April 30 of last year. In that bout, he defeated Insmael Tetteh in his native Ghana.

Mensah's most notable bouts were decision losses to Cesar Cuenca and Denis Shafikov. He does have a 2012 victory over Michael Katsidis.

In other bouts:
- Hard-hitting super middleweight Jerry Odom (14-2-1, 13 KOs) will square off against Taneal Goyco (8-9-1, 3 KOs) in an eight round bout.

- 19-year-old welterweight prospect Jaron Ennis (6-0, 5 KOs), who resides in Philadelphia, faces Chris Alexander (4-2 1 NC, 3 KOs) in a six round bout. Ennis has fought all of his his bouts this year.

- Middleweight Derrick Webster (20-1, 10 KOs) squares off against Zoltan Sera (26-10, 17 KOs) in a six round super middleweight bout.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper, RingTV, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing