Josesito embodies the warrior spirit.

Happy belated birthday, Riverside Rocky!

Josésito López turned thirty-three yesterday, and while you may be forgiven for not realizing it, he has actually remained quietly semi-active since getting sliced & diced by Andre Berto in a TKO6 defeat and failed bid for the WBA interim welterweight belt 2½ years ago, and is now campaigning at 154lbs. He returned last December shaking off 21 months of rust on the undercard of Jesús Marcelo Andrés Cuellar vs. Abner Mares on Showtime, but in a 6-rounder that didn't even rate airing on the Showtime Boxing prelim show on Facebook. The only televised glimpse of him since the carnage Berto made of his face way back during the PBC on Spike inaugural show (and 2nd ever show put on by PBC, less than a week after Thurman vs. Guerrero on Fox) has been a tepid appearance this past April, co-featuring with Alejandro Luna vs. Andrey Klimov on FS1 and getting carried a full 10 by Saul Corral, whom both Dierry Jean and Mike Alvarado blew out early - and from the sound of it, he didn't look too hot. (https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...sesito-lopez-vs-saul-corral-rbr.584884/page-4)

These days he is primarily serving as sparring partner for young Misael "El Chino" Rodríguez, a Mexican bronze medalist at middleweight from last year's Olympics who recently turned pro. He is still, for inquiring minds, still managed by Al Haymon and trained by Robert Garcia. It's doubtful there are too many big paydays in the pipeline for him (or realistic chances of making waves at light middleweight) but I hope he does get at least one more, as he deserves it for reasons that go without saying if you just read the OP of this thread. Maybe a rematch with either Berto or Ortiz (who happens to be facing Saul Corral next himself, lol) or wait for Berto and Ortiz to have a rubber match and then fight the winner.

 

Here is Josésito logging some hard minutes with Misael Rodríguez on Monday:

This content is protected

Not too shabby for being in with a much younger & fresher Olympian, and outsized.

 

For some reason I feel like a López showdown with Gabriel Rosado could be absolutely lit. Maybe even FOTY potential, although it would likely accelerate the end of both guys' careers rapidly.

Gabe can still make 154, as far as I know - was just $$-chasing at MW.

 

Bring it on, sounds good. Winner earns the right to go after revenge on Berto.

 

I wasn't crazy about it.

(^from the original RBR thread)

Getting my ducks in row.

 

He should call himself Collazarus, truly rose from the dead.

 

How about López vs. Collazo, actually? Both have victories over Victor Ortiz and competitive losses to Andre Berto.

 

You couldn't find anybody more diametrically opposed to McGregor than Collazo when it comes to an inversely proportionate deserving of a mega-fight versus likelihood of talking his way into one.

 

Josesito rumored to possibly be returning on the "battle of the Garcías" (Mikey vs. Danny) PPV undercard in August.

If victorious over a ranked opponent, and if Thurman defeats Manny Pacquiao in June...perhaps a rematch of their January clash in late 2019?