Danny Lopez (boxer)

Danny Lopez (born July 6, 1952) is an American former professional boxer who was the WBC featherweight champion of the world from November 1976 to February 1980. His nickname was Little Red.

Known for his tremendous punching power, in 2003 The Ring magazine rated Lopez at number 26 on their list of "100 Greatest Punchers".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2010, Lopez was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Background

Lopez describes himself as having Native American, Mexican, and European-American heritage. He had been moved from one foster home to another, and coming off the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in Fort Duchesne, Utah, he finally found a home in Southern California.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He said that his father was a Mission Indian from Northern California, that his maternal grandmother was three-quarters Ute, and that his maternal grandfather was part Irish.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He is also the brother of welterweight contender Ernie Lopez. He is married to Bonnie Lopez and has three sons, Bronson, Jeremy, and Dylan.

Pro career

Lopez began boxing professionally on May 27, 1971, knocking out Steve Flajole in one round at Los Angeles. He won his first 21 fights in a row by knockout, in one of the longest knockout win streaks ever. During that streak, all but one of his fights were in Los Angeles, a fact which could be credited for his popularity in the area. The only one of those 21 fights to be held outside Los Angeles took place in Honolulu, where he beat Ushiwakamaru Harada by knockout in three.

On January 17, 1974, Genzo Kurosawa became the first person to go the distance with Lopez, Lopez winning by a ten-round decision. His next fight, a month later, in Mexicali, Mexico, was his first fight abroad. He beat Memo Rodriguez by a knockout in nine rounds.

People in Los Angeles were eager to see Lopez and another up-and-coming Los Angeleno, Bobby Chacon, square off inside a ring. The fight took place on May 24, and Lopez was knocked out in the ninth round in a thrilling fight. In his next fight of note, he lost once again by a knockout in round nine, this time to Shig Furuyama.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

After losing to Octavio Gómez to begin 1975, Lopez went on a roll, beginning with a knockout of Chucho Castillo in two rounds. Two more wins, and he was faced with Rubén Olivares, whom he beat by a knockout in seven rounds, after recovering from a first round knockdown himself.

In 1976, he beat Sean O'Grady by knockout in four, Gómez by knockout in three and Art Hafey by knockout in seven. Finally ranked number one by the WBC, he travelled to Ghana to challenge world Featherweight champion David Kotei in front of an estimated crowd of more than 100,000 Kotei partisans. Lopez became world champion by outpointing Kotei over 15 rounds on November 6. Due to all communication systems having been cut down in Ghana, Lopez could not get his message through to his family; they only learned he was World Champion when they picked him up at the airport one week later.

Lopez won three fights in 1977, retaining the title once, against José Torres by a knockout in round seven.

He and Kotei had a rematch on February 15 of 1978, as part of the undercard where Leon Spinks dethroned Muhammad Ali of the world Heavyweight title. Lopez knocked Kotei out in round six of their rematch, and then he retained the title against Jose DePaula by knockout in round six, and Juan Malvares (on the undercard where Ali regained the title from Spinks) by knockout in two, after recovering from a first round knockdown himself. On October 21, he had a fight with Fel Clemente, against whom he retained the world title with a four-round disqualification in Italy.

By the end of 1978, there was much talk of a "super-fight" against world Jr. Featherweight champion Wilfredo Gómez, but the bout never materialized.

His fight on March 10 of 1979 against Spain's Roberto Castañón in Salt Lake City, not only marked the first time he defended his world title in his home-state, but the first time he fought in his home-state as a professional period. He retained the crown with a two-round knockout. On June 17, 1979, at San Antonio, Lopez defeated Mike Ayala with a thrilling 15th-round knockout and retained his WBC Featherweight title for the seventh time; the exciting bout would be recognized by Ring Magazine as its Fight of the Year for 1979.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Lopez went on to defend the title once more that year, knocking out Jose Caba in three rounds.

Lopez's reign as world champion came to an end on February 2, 1980, at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix. He met Salvador Sánchez that day, and he lost by knockout in round 13 in a one-sided affair. A rematch was fought on June 21, in Las Vegas, and that time around, Lopez was knocked out in the 14th round. He announced his retirement after that fight.

In 1985, he talked about a comeback, but decided to delay until 1992, when he was 40 years old. He lost that bout via TKO.

His record was 42 wins and 6 losses, with 39 wins by knockout.

In June 2010, Lopez and 12 other boxing personalities were inducted in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Professional boxing record

Template:Abbr	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
48	Template:No2Loss	42–6	Jorge Rodriguez	KO	2 (10), Template:Small	Feb 27, 1992	Template:Small
47	Template:No2Loss	42–5	Salvador Sánchez	TKO	14 (15), Template:Small	Jun 21, 1980	Template:Small	Template:Small
46	Template:No2Loss	42–4	Salvador Sánchez	TKO	13 (15), Template:Small	Feb 2, 1980	Template:Small	Template:Small
45	Template:Yes2Win	42–3	Jose Caba	TKO	3 (15), Template:Small	Sep 25, 1979	Template:Small	Template:Small
44	Template:Yes2Win	41–3	Mike Ayala	KO	15 (15), Template:Small	Jun 17, 1979	Template:Small	Template:Small
43	Template:Yes2Win	40–3	Roberto Castañón	KO	2 (15), Template:Small	Mar 10, 1979	Template:Small	Template:Small
42	Template:Yes2Win	39–3	Fel Clemente	DQ	4 (15), Template:Small	Oct 21, 1978	Template:Small	Template:Small
41	Template:Yes2Win	38–3	Juan Domingo Malvarez	KO	2 (15), Template:Small	Sep 15, 1978	Template:Small	Template:Small
40	Template:Yes2Win	37–3	Jose de Paula	TKO	6 (15), Template:Small	Apr 23, 1978	Template:Small	Template:Small
39	Template:Yes2Win	36–3	David Kotei	TKO	6 (15), Template:Small	Feb 15, 1978	Template:Small	Template:Small
38	Template:Yes2Win	35–3	José Torres	RTD	7 (15), Template:Small	Sep 13, 1977	Template:Small	Template:Small
37	Template:Yes2Win	34–3	Jorge Altamirano	KO	6 (10)	Aug 28, 1977	Template:Small
36	Template:Yes2Win	33–3	Jose Olivares	KO	2 (10)	Jul 29, 1977	Template:Small
35	Template:Yes2Win	32–3	David Kotei	UD	15	Nov 6, 1976	Template:Small	Template:Small
34	Template:Yes2Win	31–3	Art Hafey	TKO	7 (12), Template:Small	Aug 6, 1976	Template:Small
33	Template:Yes2Win	30–3	Octavio Gomez	KO	3 (10), Template:Small	Apr 28, 1976	Template:Small
32	Template:Yes2Win	29–3	Sean O'Grady	RTD	4 (10), Template:Small	Feb 25, 1976	Template:Small
31	Template:Yes2Win	28–3	Rubén Olivares	KO	7 (10), Template:Small	Dec 4, 1975	Template:Small
30	Template:Yes2Win	27–3	Antonio Nava	TKO	6 (10), Template:Small	Sep 13, 1975	Template:Small
29	Template:Yes2Win	26–3	Raul Cruz	KO	6 (10), Template:Small	Jul 26, 1975	Template:Small
28	Template:Yes2Win	25–3	Chucho Castillo	TKO	2 (10), Template:Small	Apr 24, 1975	Template:Small
27	Template:No2Loss	24–3	Octavio Gomez	UD	10	Jan 18, 1975	Template:Small
26	Template:No2Loss	24–2	Shig Fukuyama	RTD	8 (10), Template:Small	Sep 19, 1974	Template:Small
25	Template:Yes2Win	24–1	Masanao Toyoshima	KO	3 (10), Template:Small	Aug 8, 1974	Template:Small
24	Template:No2Loss	23–1	Bobby Chacon	TKO	9 (12), Template:Small	May 24, 1974	Template:Small
23	Template:Yes2Win	23–0	Memo Rodriguez	TKO	10 (10)	Feb 3, 1974	Template:Small
22	Template:Yes2Win	22–0	Genzo Kurosawa	UD	10	Jan 17, 1974	Template:Small
21	Template:Yes2Win	21–0	Goyo Vargas	KO	1 (10), Template:Small	Sep 27, 1973	Template:Small
20	Template:Yes2Win	20–0	Ushiwakamaru Harada	RTD	2 (10), Template:Small	Jul 31, 1973	Template:Small
19	Template:Yes2Win	19–0	Juan Ordonez	KO	4 (10), Template:Small	Jun 21, 1973	Template:Small
18	Template:Yes2Win	18–0	Cesar Ordonez	RTD	6 (10), Template:Small	May 10, 1973	Template:Small
17	Template:Yes2Win	17–0	Kenji Endo	TKO	2 (10), Template:Small	Mar 17, 1973	Template:Small
16	Template:Yes2Win	16–0	Jorge Carrasco	KO	1 (10), Template:Small	Feb 8, 1973	Template:Small
15	Template:Yes2Win	15–0	Jorge Reyes	KO	7 (10), Template:Small	Oct 19, 1972	Template:Small
14	Template:Yes2Win	14–0	Yoshinobu Goto	RTD	8 (10), Template:Small	Jul 27, 1972	Template:Small
13	Template:Yes2Win	13–0	Benny Rodriguez	KO	1 (10), Template:Small	Jul 20, 1972	Template:Small
12	Template:Yes2Win	12–0	Jose Luis Valdovinos	TKO	4 (10)	May 11, 1972	Template:Small
11	Template:Yes2Win	11–0	Arturo Pineda	KO	4 (10), Template:Small	Mar 9, 1972	Template:Small
10	Template:Yes2Win	10–0	Rafael Lopez	KO	2 (10)	Feb 18, 1972	Template:Small
9	Template:Yes2Win	9–0	Jose Manuel Orantes	KO	2 (10)	Jan 20, 1972	Template:Small
8	Template:Yes2Win	8–0	Margarito Rios	KO	1 (6)	Nov 18, 1971	Template:Small
7	Template:Yes2Win	7–0	Frankie Granados	KO	2 (6)	Oct 14, 1971	Template:Small
6	Template:Yes2Win	6–0	Rafael Lopez	TKO	5 (8)	Sep 16, 1971	Template:Small
5	Template:Yes2Win	5–0	Modesto Ortiz	KO	4 (6)	Aug 12, 1971	Template:Small
4	Template:Yes2Win	4–0	Jose Luis Estrada	KO	3 (6), Template:Small	Jul 29, 1971	Template:Small
3	Template:Yes2Win	3–0	Mauro Olivares	KO	1 (6)	Jul 8, 1971	Template:Small
2	Template:Yes2Win	2–0	Filiberto Castro	KO	1 (6)	Jun 17, 1971	Template:Small
1	Template:Yes2Win	1–0	Steve Flajole	KO	1 (6)	May 27, 1971	Template:Small	Template:Small

Life After Boxing

After his final bout, Lopez was the object of various dedications and was active on the autograph signing circuit. He returned to live in Utah full-time, then moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a construction worker. Today he lives in Chino Hills, California.

Lopez acted in the 1989 film "Fists of Steel".

Honors

• Inducted into the California Boxing Hall of Fame – 2005
• Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame – 2010

See also

• Notable boxing families
• Lineal championship
• List of world featherweight boxing champions

External links

• Template:Boxrec