{"id":388915,"date":"2026-01-05T04:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T04:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/388915\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T04:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T04:31:14","slug":"luis-alberto-lopez-targeting-champions-at-126-and-130-wants-to-be-two-time-titlist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/388915\/","title":{"rendered":"Luis Alberto Lopez targeting champions at 126 and 130, wants to be two-time titlist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former IBF featherweight champion Luis Alberto Lopez<\/a> has racked up two wins since losing his title to Angelo Leo in August 2024.
Lopez, rated at No. 5 by The Ring<\/a> at featherweight, is determined to get back to where he once was and showed he still has something to offer, stopping Miguel Arevalo Meija in three rounds, in Mexicali, on December 13.<\/p>\n

“Ar\u00e9valo was an experienced opponent,” Lopez (31-3, 18 KOs) told The Ring. “I had almost nine months since my last fight, so I knew I needed to train really hard to come back strong and make a statement.<\/p>\n

“I felt really strong, happy to come back in my hometown, but also really excited to come back on a good card looking for a title shot in 2026.”<\/p>\n

Lopez’s manager Kiki Maga\u00f1a believes his fighter has rebounded strongly from losing the title.<\/p>\n

“Honestly, I feel that Venado’s greatest attribute is his mentality, after a really difficult loss we’ve been working really hard to get back stronger and 2026 is going to be a really good year,” said Maga\u00f1a. “We’ll be ready for any challenge.”<\/p>\n

“Venado” had hoped that opportunity may open up sooner rather than later and had been vocal calling out his countryman Rafael Espinoza<\/a>, who holds the WBO 126-pound title, but to no avail, with Espinoza ultimately choosing a different path for his November title defense, instead facing Arnold Khegai, stopping the tough but out-gunned challenger in 11 rounds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Espinoza is a solid champion,” he said. “Honestly my team and personally myself felt really disappointed because we knew it was going to be a true Mexican war.”<\/p>\n

That won’t stop Lopez calling for a title opportunity.<\/p>\n

“I’ll continue working and looking for all the champions in the 126 and 130 division,” he said. “My target is to became a two-time world champion in 2026. <\/p>\n

“I know my next fight will be tough and that\u2019s why I’m getting a couple days to rest after this fight and come back to the gym asap.”<\/p>\n

Questions\/comments can be sent to Anson at elraincoat@live.co.uk and you can follow him on X @AnsonWainwr1ght<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former IBF featherweight champion Luis Alberto Lopez has racked up two wins since losing his title to Angelo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,1151,1144,1150,1149,1142,711,1145,1146,1147,1148,1143,49,48,1156,1155,1138,1136,1137,1153,1139,1135,1157,1152,82,1154,1134,1141,1140],"class_list":{"0":"post-388915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-community","10":"tag-boxing-fights","11":"tag-boxing-history","12":"tag-boxing-interviews","13":"tag-boxing-magazine","14":"tag-boxing-news","15":"tag-boxing-photos","16":"tag-boxing-rankings","17":"tag-boxing-results","18":"tag-boxing-schedule","19":"tag-boxing-videos","20":"tag-ca","21":"tag-canada","22":"tag-disqualification","23":"tag-draw","24":"tag-fight","25":"tag-fighter","26":"tag-fighter-news","27":"tag-knockout","28":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","29":"tag-ring","30":"tag-ring-magazine","31":"tag-split-decision","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-technical-knockout","34":"tag-the-ring","35":"tag-top-fighters","36":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}