By Rey Colon
Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum would like to match former two-division world champion Juan Manuel Lopez (32-2, 29 KO's) against undefeated WBO featherweight king Mikey Garcia on a May date.
But, Juanma's co-promoter Ivan Rivera of Puerto Rico Best Boxing has his own ideas. He wants Juanma to take another easy tuneup fight in late April in the United States, and then wants to match him against Nonito Donaire on a date in August or September.
"We want to fight in late April over ten rounds in America at 128, and then prepare for a big fight in August or September with a well known fighter. We'd like Donaire at 126, but we have to see if [Juanma] can still get down there and how good the deal is. He has said he will fight at 130 but if he gets a good deal on 126, everyone would sacrifice and put in work," Rivera said.
First, Donaire (31-1, 20 KO's) has a tough unification ahead with Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KO's) in April.
"Donaire has to win and he says that he wants to climb to 126. A fight with Donaire, no doubt it's a big fight and economically it's very good. The two have said repeatedly that they would like to fight and Donaire is one of the top three best pound for pound fighters. That's why we want to stay active."
