Ricardo
Lopez
In the summer of 1997, Lopez bashed up Puerto Rican WBO champion
Alex Sanchez in a unification bout that took place on the undercard
of Felix Trinidad-Troy Waters at the famed Madison Square Garden.
He
met unbeaten rival Rosendo Alvarez in early 1998, in Mexico City (on
the undercard of iconic-Mexican legend Julio Cesar Chavez’s fight
against Miguel Angel Gonzalez) in front of around 50,000 fans.
The
Nicaraguan WBA champion gave Lopez all he could handle in the division’s
first superfight.
The Mexican was on the canvas for the only
time in his career in the second round, before an untimely clash of
heads left Lopez unable to continue. The fight went to the scorecards
and the bout was declared a draw.
The rematch took place several
months later in the fall of ’98. At the weigh in Alvarez came in three-and-a-quarter
pounds above the 105 pound division limit. When Alvarez was unable
to shed the weight, Lopez’ father advised his son to cancel the fight.
However, to the Mexican’s enormous credit he went against his father’s
wishes and won a hard fought 12 round split decision, unifying his
WBC belt with the WBA championship in what is widely considered his
defining fight. It is believed for this fight Lopez earned a career
high $150,000.
Lopez vacated his belts and headed three pounds
north, where he bested Will Grigsby to win the IBF belt. Although
Lopez fought infrequently and was winding down his career, he beat
long time strawweight rival Ratanapol Sor Vorapin easily before bringing
down the curtain on his career against Zolani Petelo on the highly
charged Felix Trinidad-Bernard Hopkins undercard again at Madison
Square Garden in September 2001.
He officially retired on Nov.
28, 2002.
Interestingly, Lopez says his proudest moment was when
he retired as an unbeaten fighter, which meant everything to him.
Lopez was named 70th best fighter of the past 80 years by The Ring
magazine in 2002.
His Trainer Nacho Beristain followed him into
the IBHOF in 2011.
A statue was erected of him in Atizapan de
Zaragoza, State of Mexico and unveiled on March 20, 2009.