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Time To Meet – Ricky Lopez
By Barbara Pinnella
At the young age of 24, Denver, Colorado native Ricky Lopez
(7-1) is staging a comeback. An accomplished amateur fighter
with a record of 89-9 and nine or 10 National Championships
under his belt, Lopez has eight professional fights to his
credit. Some of you might have seen him out here in L.A., as
he has fought four times at Club Nokia.
But his last fight was a little more than a year ago, and it
was that bout that handed him his first pro loss. Since he
has been off since last July, I asked him if he was injured
in that fight.
“I’ve been off with a hand injury,” Ricky told me. “I hurt
it three fights before that, but kept fighting with it. I
haven’t had surgery yet. I think they have to drain it and
take some calcium deposits out. They will start working on
it the beginning of next week.”
So it’s been a rather long year for Lopez. Time has not
healed the hand, but then again it’s hard when one keeps
training. “Well, I haven’t used it as much – it’s my left
hand, and that’s my dominate hand, so I’ve been working on
my right and staying in shape. I’m trying to make my right
hand as good as my left, so it’s a good thing and bad thing.
But at least my right hand will be better by the time my
left heals.”
He said that he should not be out long after the procedure.
In fact, Golden Boy called him the day before we spoke and
told him that he is fighting September 17th on one of the
mega-fight undercards. “Either card, I’m blessed,” he told
me. “I’ll be happy with either one of them.”
As soon as Ricky gets his hand fixed, he is coming back out
to California. When he was here before he stayed with Victor
Ortiz. He will probably be with Ortiz again when he gets
back. As he said, either fight card would be fine, but it
would almost certainly be a bit more exciting for him to be
under Ortiz.
“I was going through pictures yesterday of me and Victor. I
remember we used to be in love with Fernando Vargas and used
to say, ‘One day that’s going to be us!’ Now he’s at that
level. It’s kind of crazy.”
Although boxing is the main focus for Lopez right now, he
has many other interests. “I’m an actor too; I’ve been
acting since I was in the sixth grade. I do a little music
as well. I’m an entertainer, so I can do anything.
“I’m also going to get my real estate license. I want to be
successful. My main goal is to be World Champion. Boxing is
the love of my life. As long as I don’t have a fight coming
up I can other things in my off time, but otherwise it’s
boxing. If I have a fight, I’m going to be 100% boxing.”
Ricky had one year of college studying business and
management, but has been reading business books and positive
thinking books since he was 15 or 16. “I just want to be
successful both inside and outside of the ring. I talked to
one teacher on the east coast about my going to school for
business and management and he told me that’s what he
taught. But then he told me that he had never owned a
business. How could he teach me how to run a business if
he’s never owned a business? We stopped there.
“My father owned a few businesses. He failed at them, but I
learned off his mistakes. I know that anything I do I’m
going to be successful with God’s help.”
Good luck to Ricky. Here’s hoping that hand finally gets
fixed and that he comes back 100%. And as always, I want to
thank him for his time.
Be safe and God Bless,
Viva La Raza,
Barb.
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