By Mark Vester
WBO super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez (23-0, 21KOs) has finally spoken out on the false claims that were made against him and his team by last Saturday's opponent Sergio Medina of Argentina. Lopez stopped Medina in one round on the undercard to De La Hoya-Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. A few days later, Medina went on a radio station in Argentina and claimed that Juanma and his team approached him at the Friday weigh-in and ordered him to take a first round dive or "he wouldn't leave the country alive." He swore on his daughters that he was telling the truth.
After the story began to receive major attention in Puerto Rico and reached media outlets in America, Medina would come clean to reporters in Argentina by announcing that he lied about the entire incident and apologized to Juanma and everyone else that he accused. His United States agent, Sampson Lewkowicz, told BoxingScene.com that Medina may be suffering from some kind of mental illness to create such a wild story.
Juanma was very upset with Medina's comments, but won't let them affect his career.
"He tried to stain my work and the reputations of Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions, and all the people that were involved in the event. What Medina says is not going to take me away from my dream and stop what lies ahead for me," Lopez said to Primera Hora.
"Comments like that are the ones that do damage to the sport. These days, those type of things do not happen and it's a real dirty trick on behalf of Medina to make that kind of accusation. After he talked so much, I thought he was actually going to fight, but in reality he was terrified."
Send News Tips and Comments To Mark Vester @ boxingscene@hotmail.com
