After almost a decade as the World Boxing Council minimumweight champion, Mexican master Ricardo Lopez stepped up the three pounds to light-flyweight, where, since October 1999, he has reigned as IBF titleholder. Over a spicy meal of prawns at a seafood restaurant in Mexico City, Boxing Monthly interviews the evergreen veteran.
BM: What are you doing at the moment?
RL: I’m having a bit of a break, but I’m in talks with Don King to see when I’ll fight next. But, with all sincerity, I’m not particularly worried about who it will be. For the pay, I’ll be there ready to fight and, as always, in top shape. If Don says fight this one or that one, I’ll do it.
BM: Your training arrangements have changed. You no longer train at the gym of Ignacio Beristain, which you had done for a number of years.
RL: Everything in life goes in cycles and the cycle with Mr Beristain has now finished. I thanked him very much for the time he worked with me. Now I’ve got new trainers - an Argentinian, Amilcar Brusa, and a Mexican, Romulo Quirarte, from Tijuana who’s trained a number of champions including [Jorge] Paez. I’m working very hard in the gym. I run every day and I’m in great shape.
BM: Why did you move up to light-fly?
RL: I had conquered the straw-weight division [NOTE: the WBC call the 7st 7lbs category minimumweight rather than strawweight], and the other reason for moving up was because, up to then, it had cost me so much in sacrifice to keep to the weight limit. I was world champ in that category for nine years. But I feel so much better at light-fly. In real terms, in the categories of bantamweight and below, two kilos or about four pounds is a tremendous amount, and it provides a great advantage to a small person like me. Another factor in the higher division is that the punching power is very different and, when you get into the ring, it is very different. I feel stronger because I have to lose less weight, but the power here is certainly more.
BM: So do you have to change tactics or adapt your training at all?
RL: I train the same way, but, thank God, I can eat better. I can eat more tacos and I feel better for it.
BM: Are you planning to move up once again into a higher weight category?
RL: It’s a possibility, but at the moment I feel just fine in this division.
BM: You’re now 35 and you’ve been a world champion since 1990. How many more fights will you have, and do you feel you can preserve your undefeated record until you retire?
RL: I do want some more fights, if God and my faculties permit. But I also want to retire undefeated. I’m the longest-reigning champion. I’m actually in the Guinness Book of Records with 16 years without a defeat. I’ve been a boxer for 26 years, I’ve had 50 fights and 25 world-championship fights, and I’ve won four world championship belts, with the WBC, WBA, WBO and the IBF. No one’s achieved what I’ve achieved.
BM: What’s the secret of your success?
RL: It’s thanks to God. But there’s a saying that God helps those that help themselves. I’m also a clean-living person who’s never touched drugs and I work incredibly hard. I always train and prepare most carefully. When the fight contract is signed, I focus and concentrate 100% on that fight. It’s my priority - my number one. I’m not so much interested in being unique as being able to achieve my goals while getting well paid.
BM: Before your last bout, you had not fought for a year or more. Do you now want to be in action more regularly?
RL: There were problems with Don King. Don King is a very controversial person. He had problems in court. But, for my part, I never stopped training, and I’ve always trained to go the distance. Being prepared is being ready for anything.
BM: What’s your opinion of WBC minimum champ Jose Antonio Aguirre?
RL: He’s a great boxer and a world champion. He helped me for various fights with quality sparring. For me, if I’m paid I’ll fight. In respect of Jose Antonio Aguirre, I don’t particularly want to go that way. I want to fight where I am. There are flyweights, super-flyweights and light-flyweights who want to fight against me, because it gets them more money.
BM: Would you like to fight Rosendo Alvarez for a third time?
RL: If the pay is right, sure I’ll fight him.
BM: Why did you go ahead with your second fight against him, when he was way over the 7st 7lbs weight limit?
RL: Yes, he was way, way over the limit. By doing this, he behaved in a very irresponsible way. But I decided to fight because I was very well prepared.
BM: What has been the most memorable fight in your career to date?
RL: Without doubt when I won the world title in Tokyo [a fifth-round win against Hideyuki Ohashi in October 1990]. It is a fight I have the fondest memories of.
BM: And the hardest?
RL: There have been various. My first title defence in Korea [a points win over Kyung-Yun Lee in December 1991], the first fight against Alvarez, when he briefly put me on the canvas, and a fight when I knocked out a light-flyweight champion from Thailand, who had defeated [Humberto] "Chiquita" Gonzalez. I’m sorry I don’t remember his name
[Saman Sorjaturong].
BM: Do you sometimes wish you were a heavyweight who could earn tens of millions of dollars for each fight?
RL [laughs]: It would be better to be a heavyweight - the reality is that the public give more attention to them. But I’ve earned enough in my somewhat lighter division and I can’t complain.
BM: In the last few years, do you think there has been a growing appreciation of fights in the lower weight categories?
RL: The US market is certainly opening up a lot more. Obviously, it’s not as well as for welterweights or above, but we are earning more than we did in the past.
BM: When you retire, do you want to retain a connection with boxing or explore other business opportunities?
RL: I’ve worked for a long time, I like to administer my money well, and now I want my money to work for me. But I’ve always enjoyed this life and the travel, and I would like to work as a TV boxing analyst in Miami. I also want to travel to even more countries than I’ve already visited to learn more about their cultures and lifestyles. I want to go through all of Europe and the Middle East. I want to visit Jerusalem, the Lebanon, Greece and Morocco. It is for that very reason I want to retire in good health, with all my faculties - and be well off.
