Puerto Rican idols: JuanMa Lopez following Cotto, Trinidad in title march

Lopez hopes to follow Trinidad to top of boxing

NEW YORK — Juan Manuel Lopez basked in the attention, standing on stage and pounding his bare chest as he weighed in for Saturday’s featherweight title fight against Steven Luevano.

He’s only 26, but already JuanMa has become the latest Puerto Rican idol, with an easy smile and boyish good looks that mask incredible power. He’s perfect through 27 fights, winning all but three by knockout, at one point stopping three straight opponents in the first round.

He reminds many of his own idol, Felix Trinidad, who for so long carried the mantle as the best fighter from the boxing-rich island.

“I’m really happy to be passing the torch,” said Trinidad, who joined Lopez on stage Friday. “In some ways he reminds me of myself. It’s a great time for him to be coming along, and I think he’s going to be on top for a long time to come.”

Trinidad recently retired after going 42-3 with 35 knockouts. The charismatic five-time champion was Ring Magazine’s fighter of the year in 2000, waged thrilling bouts against the likes of Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins, and is still revered among Puerto Ricans.

Just like Lopez, Trinidad had his own set of idols to follow.

Perhaps the greatest of them was Wilfredo Benitez, who won two titles by age 20 and fought such greats as Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns during the 1980s. Or maybe it was Esteban De Jesus, who also fought Duran and was among the best lightweights of the 1970s.

The names roll off the register — Wilfredo Gomez, Juan Laporte, John John Molina — all of them establishing their own place in their own time.

Now, Lopez hopes it’s his turn.

“I’m trying to take it day-by-day, what is going on in my life,” Lopez said. “We’re going to continue that way, because you want to be careful you don’t get ahead of yourself.”

That’s a difficult proposition when the world seems to revolve around you.

Lopez is clearly the headliner for Saturday night’s card in the theater at Madison Square Garden, even though the junior featherweight titleholder is the challenger for Luevano’s WBO featherweight belt.

It is Lopez whose picture appears on all of the promotional pieces, alongside Yuriorkis Gamboa, who will fight Rogers Mtagwa in the co-main event. And it’s Lopez whose biographical information comes first in the press packet given to the media.

“There’s no picture of Steven and he’s the one defending his title,” said Luevano’s wife, Marina, as she looked at one of the fight posters.

The two fighters have wildly different styles, both inside the ring and out.

Lopez fights with unabashed fury, always looking for the highlight-reel knockout, which has at times gotten him into trouble. He was nearly knocked out by Mtagwa in the late rounds of his last fight in October, stumbling around the ring while the final seconds ticked away. But he also makes for crowd-pleasing fights, with plenty of heavy punches slicing through the air.

Lopez also enjoys being the center of attention, walking into a news conference on Thursday with an entourage that numbered nearly a dozen. All of them were dressed in matching red, white and black track suits, his own saying “JuanMa” across the chest and on his hat.

Sitting in a row of folding chairs, Luevano barely looked up to see Lopez come in.

He was busy fiddling with his cell phone, his baggy jeans and askew hat making him look like a skateboarder rather than a fighter. The California kid prefers to stay out of the spotlight, calls himself “pretty boring,” and his entourage consists of his wife and kids.

Inside the ring, he’s a skilled technician with enough pop to stop somebody if the chance presents itself. Luevano (37-1-1, 15 KOs) knocked out Nicky Cook to win the title, and has defended it against top contenders Terdsak Jandaeng, Billy Dib and Bernabe Concepcion.

“It’s one of my dreams to fight for a second world title,” Lopez said. “But it’s a very tough fight. Everyone knows Steven Luevano is one of the best at 126 pounds in the world.”

So is Gamboa, whom promoter Top Rank would eventually like to put into the ring against Lopez in a big-money fight later in the year.

Gamboa won a title in only his 15th professional fight and defended it with a fourth-round knockout of Whyber Garcia in October. The Cuban Olympic gold medalist takes on Mtagwa in the opening fight of the HBO telecast.

“He needs to win his fight and I need to win my fight,” Lopez said. “I like the fight and if the company likes the fight, I don’t have any problems making it.”