Tuesday, July 27, 2010 | 10:47 a.m.
Juan Manuel Lopez drops Bernabe Concepcion during their WBO featherweight title fight in Puerto Rico on July 10, 2010. Lopez won by TKO in the second round.
Top Rank on Tuesday officially announced a Sept. 18 featherweight world title fight between Juan Manuel Lopez and Rafael Marquez at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
The fight will be for Lopez's WBO featherweight title.
It will be the second year in a row that Las Vegas will host a significant boxing event during Mexican Independence Day weekend. Floyd Mayweather Jr. fought and defeated Juan Manuel Marquez on Sept. 19 at the MGM Grand.
"To join the elite class of Mexican champions like Julio Cesar Chavez, Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, Fernando Montiel and my brother Juan Manuel has always been a goal of mine," said the Mexican fighter Marquez in a released statement.
"Now that opportunity has arrived, fighting for a third division world title as my country celebrates its Independence Day."
Lopez (29-0, 26 KO) is coming off a second-round TKO victory over Bernabe Concepcion fought at Madison Square Garden earlier this month.
The 27-year-old fighter, who won his first world title in 2008, has started to break his way into the top pound-for-pound rankings with recent wins over Rogers Mtagwa and Steven Luevano.
Marquez (39-5, 35 KO) also posted a stoppage win in his last fight, knocking out Israel Vazquez in the third round of their May 22 bout at Staples Center.
Marquez, 35, is the current WBC interim featherweight champion. He also held the IBF bantamweight title from 2003 to 2007, successfully defending it seven times.
Tickets for the event will be made available to the public Aug. 2. The fight will air on the Showtime Network.
Brett Okamoto can be reached at 948-7817 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at LVSunFighting
Join the Discussion:
Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.
Full comments policy