{"id":352731,"date":"2026-01-05T03:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T03:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/352731\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T03:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T03:31:09","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\/uk\/352731\/","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":352732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":["post-352731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-boxing-results","tag-disqualification","tag-draw","tag-fight","tag-fighter","tag-fighter-news","tag-knockout","tag-latest-boxing-matches","tag-ring","tag-ring-magazine","tag-split-decision","tag-sports","tag-technical-knockout","tag-the-ring","tag-top-fighters","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}