SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO - After mastering his Filipino challenger, Bernabe Concepcion, with a spectacular knockout in the second assault, Juan Manuel "Juanma" Lopez, the featherweight champion of the World Boxing Organization (WBO), sat at the post-fight press conference and addressed the biggest fight of his career, when he defends the title against Rafael Marquez on September in Las Vegas. Photos by Jose Perez/PRBBP
The fight was announced by the promoter Bob Arum, president of Top Rank, who said that almost everything is finalized for the mega-fight, indicating that only the only thing missing is the signature of Juama on the contract. Marquez's co-promoter Fernando Beltran of Zanfer was at the press conference.
"We are almost in agreement with the people of Marquez, promoter Fernando Beltran, who is here with us, and Top Rank, will present this great fight on a special day for Mexicans," Arum said.
For his part, Lopez said that for a long time he's been looking to fight Marquez (39-5, 35 KOs), but for various reasons he couldn't get the fight.
"Since I became champion by beating Daniel Ponce de Leon, I said that I wanted to fight with Rafael Marquez and Israel Vazquez, but I couldn't get them. Now I can get that fight because Marquez has signed, and the only thing missing is my signature," Juanma said.
"I'll be talking to my manager Orlando Piñero, who is the one to negotiate with my promoter Bob Arum and my co-promoter Peter Rivera to make sure it happens. But I think it's a 95% it will happen."
