ShoBox: The New Generation Quick Pick

Lopez looks to move closer to a title shot

Adam Lopez vs. Daniel Roman: On Friday night from Atlantic City, New Jersey two prospects will look to move to contender status.  Adam Lopez (16-0-1, 8 KO) will put his unbeaten record on the line against Daniel Roman (21-2-1, 7 KO) in a bout scheduled to go 12 rounds in the junior featherweight division.  This is a big opportunity for both men because the fight is a WBA title eliminator and the winner will likely face one of the other WBA junior featherweight champions.  Other, because the WBA awards multiple champions in the same division.  Lopez is an interesting fighter because he does not have much power to speak of but he fights like he does.  The 26-year-old fights out of the orthodox stance and he doesn't spend much time on the outside working his jab.  Instead, Lopez likes to work from the pocket where he has shown a nice left hook and sturdy right hand and he will work both of those punches upstairs as well as to the body.  However, on the inside Lopez doesn't move his head much and can leave himself open for return fire.  When Lopez makes his way in though he does show good head movement and he would be better served if he used that same movement when he was in the pocket.  Lopez also has a bad habit of squaring up too much in the pocket and remaining to stationary and if he can improve defensively he is skilled enough offensively to give a lot of fighters a tough night.  Roman is also an orthodox fighter and he has even less pop on his punches than Lopez does.  Like his opponent Roman doesn't make much use of his jab either but what he does like to do is counter with left hooks and straight right hands.  However, Roman often gets caught clean on his way in, partly because he doesn't jab his way in.  This fight has disaster written all over it for Roman.  If he fights like he typically does he will try to get in the pocket without using his jab and Lopez will be able to catch him with his good left hook or right hand on his way in.  All Lopez really needs to worry about is getting too aggressive and getting caught with a counter left hook from Roman.  As long as Lopez doesn't get too aggressive he should have a fairly easy time on Friday night and he will win this fight with an eighth round stoppage.