{"id":808417,"date":"2026-07-18T15:12:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T15:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/808417\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T15:12:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T15:12:26","slug":"lopez-anticipates-boxing-head-off-familiar-foe-romero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/808417\/","title":{"rendered":"Lopez anticipates ‘boxing head off’ familiar foe Romero"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lopez<\/a> is nonetheless confident that he\u2019ll respond from his lopsided loss to Shakur Stevenson<\/a> by beating Romero<\/a> convincingly in their welterweight title fight. The former lightweight and junior welterweight champ is also eager to make his debut at 147 pounds when he challenges Romero for his WBA belt in a main event DAZN will stream from T-Mobile Arena<\/a>.\u201cI feel strong,\u201d Lopez said during an appearance on the most recent episode of \u201cInside The Ring,\u201d available on DAZN<\/a> and The Ring\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>. \u201cI feel [as] fast as ever. I think the most important part about this whole thing is really that what I did at 135 is what I\u2019ll be at 147. My mind is really set on this, guys. I\u2019m not gonna lie. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when my mind is set on something, I go out there and I take it. I\u2019m going to beat the living dogsh*t out of Rolly Romero. Well, I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m beating the living dog poop out of Rolly Romero. I think that\u2019s what people need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Romero (17-2, 13 KOs) will end a 15-month layoff when he opposes Lopez (22-2, 13 KOs).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The North Las Vegas native hasn\u2019t boxed since he upset Ryan Garcia (25-2, 20 KOs) by unanimous decision<\/a> to win the WBA\u2019s secondary championship in the main event of a Ring card in May 2025 in New York. The WBA elevated Romero to full champion once Jaron Ennis gave up its title 13 months ago to compete at junior middleweight<\/a>.Lopez\u2019s only action since Romero beat Garcia<\/a> was his unanimous-decision defeat to Stevenson (25-0, 11 KOs), who is ranked No. 3 on The Ring\u2019s pound-for-pound list<\/a>. The highly skilled, left-handed Stevenson is a much different fighter than Romero, however, which leaves Lopez certain of a completely opposite outcome than he experienced in the main event of \u201cThe Ring 6\u201d on January 31<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow am I gonna approach it?\u201d Lopez said. \u201cJust with boxing his head off, getting back to my fundamentals and my basics. That\u2019s really what I\u2019m focused on in this upcoming match with Rolly. I know they say he\u2019s a heavy hitter. We\u2019ve gotten in the ring a few times in sparring, but nothing\u2019s like a real fight. I look forward to a real showdown with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopez, 28, is listed by most sportsbooks as more than a 2-1 favorite over Romero, 30. Garcia entered the ring as an 11-1 favorite to beat Romero, who dropped him in the second round and won by scores of 118-109, 115-112 and 115-112.<\/p>\n

Subscribers to DAZN\u2019s Ultimate plan<\/a>, which costs $49.99 per month in the United States and \u00a324.99 in the United Kingdom, can access the Romero-Lopez card for no additional charge. Non-subscribers can purchase the event via pay-per-view for a price to be announced.<\/p>\n

Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lopez is nonetheless confident that he\u2019ll respond from his lopsided loss to Shakur Stevenson by beating Romero convincingly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[90965,64,63,802,232239,1920,382785,85,2974],"class_list":["post-808417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-object-object","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-articles","tag-boxing-news","tag-fight-report","tag-sports","tag-the-ring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}