Schaefer interested in moving Amir Khan vs. Josesito Lopez in April

By ESB - 12/12/2012 - Comments

By Michael Collins:  If Amir Khan (26-3, 18 KO’s) gets past lightweight Carlos Molina (17-0, 7 KO’s) on Saturday night, his promoter Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions says he wants to match Khan against Josesito Lopez (30-5, 18 KO’s) in a fight that would take place in April.

LA Times writer Lance Pugmire said on his twitter page “Schaefer said he likes the idea of Amir Khan winning Saturday, moving to an April fight against Josesito Lopez at Staples Center.”

Lopez, 28, was just blown out by WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in a 5th round knockout loss last September in a fight in which Lopez was knocked down three separate times before the fight was halted. Lopez hit the deck in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds by the big power shots from the much stronger Alvarez. Golden Boy didn’t do Lopez any favors by having him move up two divisions from light welterweight to take on their unbeaten champion. It was painfully obvious right from the get go that Lopez didn’t belong in the same ring with Alvarez in terms of talent, speed, power and size. Lopez just looked like a lightweight with an extra 14 pounds of flab on him. He didn’t look like he’d gained any muscle for the fight, just fat.

This would be a risky fight for Khan because Lopez has decent power and he loves to brawl. He’d force Khan into a fire fight with his high pressure offense and Khan would have to revert back to his old style of fighting or else he’d get riddled to pieces by Lopez.

Schaefer needs to realize that just because Alvarez was able to beat up on Lopez doesn’t mean that Khan will be able to do the same thing. Alvarez is a long stronger than Khan and has a much sturdier chin as well. Lopez will be pinning his ears back to go after Khan if Schaefer gives him a chance, because he knows that Khan has a fragile chin and he’ll be looking to take advantage of that.