Where does JuanMa go from here?

He still has a bit to offer and can easily be manoeuvred in line for a strap.

But he's inherently flawed. He can still be a pretty tough exciting slugger in the mould of a lower-level Jaime Garza (for power at least ;-)) and be involved in some good ones.

I say sacrifice him to Donaire :yep

 

And Salido's punch resistance is clearly on the wane IMO. Not surprised JuanMa walked him onto a shot just like the (I've never heard of him prior) Filipino journeyman and dropped him. Salido was less hurt here IMO.

JuanMa just hasn't improved or learnt his lesson. In fact, he's never been as good as he was against Ponce IMO. In every other era he's just a fun contender, and I hope he can embrace that and be put in some more fun fights.

I think he hits 130 now for sure, Broner, Uchiyama would be a stretch too far for someone as defensively porous as Lopez, but Salgado, countryman Martinez or the very good (IMO) Burgos would all be worth a watch.

I'd love to see Lopez in a guaranteed shootout with fellow vulnerable puncher Jhonny Gonzalez. Gonzalez has the better form IMO, and has finally found a weight where he's not struggling, but I think Lopez is tough enough to still come through Hell to get kb the Mexican's chest and hit with the same kinda' shots to the head and body that we have seen make him wilt before.

 

Give him a rest, let him have a few easy-ish comeback fights where he can gain a bit of confidence again before hopefully getting a big fight against someone like Gamboa or John. He'll probably lose again sometime but I don't think there should be too much to get down about.

Both fights against Salido were great to watch and he's still one of the most entertaining boxers today IMO.

 

I think it was from Mtagwa onward that he lost his patience, and probably started ballooning more between fights.

Sorry 'bout the long-winded edit as well

 

Exactly, he's entertaining, so let him fight at his level instead of trying to build him back up to have a wasteful 'title reign' or lose when he's overmatched.

Plenty of decent matchups for him at 126 and 130 that you wouldn't say he's any worse than 50-50 in IMO :good

 

I'd make sure he doesn't go near Salido again as well :yep

 

Feed him to Broner. It will short and painful for JML, but it will be good whilst it lasts?

 

For sure. Bad matchup for him. That might be the last hurrah for Salido though, he'll have less opportunities against Garcia (who I'm not sold on) and he's looking less nails as the fights go on, and living on powers of recovery, which has it's limits as you get on (Marquez's day will come, sadly) and against a young gun lime Garcia he could eat some accurate shots that do him.

Still, Salido, a gutsy and dangerous veteran, wouldn't surprise me if he had a Garcia-type prospect left in him. Really like Salido by the way, well-schooled at what he does

 

I've followed JuanMa since before he demolished Ponce, and since then he's slowly abandoned his technique and relied on his not inconsiderable power. He was one of the best pure offensive fighters in the world at one point. He's got middling reflexes though, so needed to rely on being patient behind his jab in case of counters.

As he's gotten older, he's found less reason to box his way in because he can usually out-tough and out-slug his opponents. Even though he lost to Salido first time out, he had excuses. There was nothing wrong with his gameplan, it was his divorce, etc.

Of course, that played a part, but he didn't see Salido wasn't taking him apart because of his divorce, it was because he kept circling into the Mexican's power hand. And when Salido introduced that left hook and a stiff jab, Lopez hadn't thought about how to deal with those too.

So where next? He needs to really focus on regaining his technique. As you say, Vano, his footwork was awful. He needs to use a tighter guard and get back to popping the jab out of it. Then he needs to pick some fights where he can use those tools and get consistent with them.

 

You horrible *******

 

:hey Awful matchup for Lopez that, and would make Donaire look a million dollars I expect!