Toss up fight. Escalera had tremendous heart and good power. He also had great stamina. Lopez is faster and a bit better schooled. This would be a war. Lopez almost always fought in his hometown as champion and Escalera was protected by the WBA. If its in a neutral site, I'll go with Lopez by close decision.
With all due respect, Alfredo Escalera was the WBC World Junior Lightweight Champion when he fought Alexis Arguello, in Jan 1978, and was stopped on cuts.
Barring any deep lacerations to his eyebrow, that Alexis Arguello caused, in their Jan 1978 WBC World Junior Lightweight Title bout, that enabled Alexis to win. I see Escalera scoring a unanimous decision win over a tough Tony The Tiger Lopez. Alfredo has very good boxing skills, and is quick enough to accomplish this.
I meant WBC. I was mostly referring to how he was given a gift decision over Everett in Tyrone's hometown. WBC judges screwed that one up.