Diary of a Fighter: Juanma Prepares For Salido

There’s no rest for the weary – especially if you’re featherweight champion of the world, Juan Manuel “Juanma” Lopez. The Puerto Rican superstar has stayed busy, training hard for his April 16^th contest with the rugged Mexican veteran Orlando Salido. In between sparring sessions, roadwork, and weightlifting, he’s also been doing charity work, checking out division rival YURIORKIS GAMBOA (who beat Salido last year), and promoting Saturday’s bout on Showtime.

Juanma has also been keepingA DIARY OF HIS ACTIVITIES FOR ESPN.COM, which has been chronologically ordered and excerpted below:

Wednesday, March 30 — Part 1:

The training is done in my hometown of Caguas, Puerto Rico, where I have always trained. When I run through the beach I go to Isla Verde in San Juan. Sometimes I contemplate the idea of training away from Puerto Rico, but I love to train in my beautiful little island and I feel very good here. During training I never stay away from my family, I stay at home. I am very focused in training and I never feel the need to get too far away in order to concentrate.

Lopez with Felix Trinidad/Photo by Chris Farina.

Monday, April 4 — Part 2:

On Saturday, March 26, I went to Atlantic City, N.J., to watch YURIORKIS GAMBOA fight Jorge Solis. Gamboa’s victory was resounding. Definitely, the two of us are the best fighters in the division — there is no question about that now. Personally, I wasn’t too shocked, though, because he did all the things I knew he was going to do. I don’t want people to take this the wrong way, but he did what he always does: His speed and his power — those are the things he always brings.

Thursday, April 7 — Part 3:

We are already finishing the training, and we are working only with speed, slowing down our pace with all the other exercises because we are very close to the fight. We are 90 percent done with the training, and we are nine pounds away from the contracted weight. On April 8 we will have our last prefight weigh-in, in which we will have to weigh a maximum of 132 pounds as one of the requirements of the boxing commission here in Puerto Rico, and then one week later we will have to make the actual weight.

Friday, April 8 — Part 4:

We are also doing a lot of promotion. For example, we’re going around different cable distributors here on the island to motivate the sales people and the people who work there to offer their clients the possibility of buying the Showtime package. A lot of people here have basic cable and HBO, and we ask people to get Showtime by taping ads and asking them to buy the fight, because I haven’t fought in Puerto Rico in quite a while. I fought BERNABE CONCEPCION last year, and we are very motivated to fight at home. If it was up to me, I would fight every fight in Puerto Rico, but we can’t do that, so we go around fighting in other places to gain access to different audiences.