As revealed last month, Teofimo Lopez’s inaugural WBO super lightweight title defense will pit him against Jamaine Ortiz atop a February 8th ESPN show in Las Vegas.
Lopez (19-1, 13 KO) turned into one of 2023’s bigger comeback stories when he ran roughshod over Josh Taylor in June, earning both the belt and the luster he’d lost after barely squeaking past Sandor Martin the year prior. There’s been chatter about taking on Subriel Matias in a unification match this coming summer, but first he’ll have to get past Ortiz (17-1-1, 8 KO), who returns to super lightweight after a strong run at 135 saw him comfortably beat Jamel Herring before coming up just short against Vasily Lomachenko.
It would be great if fighters who moved up in weight would stop fighting people they dragged up from their previous weight class, which I will henceforth refer to as Garcia-ing, but Ortiz is a big boy and he can scrap. Also, credit where credit is due: the composition of everything below the “TOP RANK | ESPN” portion of that poster is straight-up garbage, but those are some snazzy robes.
The first half of the doubleheader sees Keyshawn Davis (10-0, 6 KO) battle Jose Pedraza (29-5-1, 14 KO). The two were slated to meet last month before Davis tested positive for marijuana, which frankly reflects worse on the Texas commission than on Davis in my book. As mentioned before, good test for Davis.
Undercard highlights include Emiliano Vargas (8-0, 7 KO), Abdullah Mason (11-0, 9 KO), Javier Martinez (9-0-1, 3 KO), Charlie Sheehy (8-0, 5 KO), Alan Garcia (10-0, 8 KO), and Art Barrera Jr. (2-0, 2 KO).