By Mario Ortega Jr.-
In the modern era of professional boxing it sometimes feels like some of the world’s best fighters are somehow pieced together in a lab, rather than naturally born and developed athletes. Some of these fighters that are so athletically gifted and excellently trained at a young age can make one wonder how anyone can compete if they did not have that same background. One young fighter that has those in the know comparing him to the top young fighters of recent times is 17-year-old child prodigy junior welterweight “Dynamite” David Lopez. The Alameda High School student takes a break from class next week to go for pro win number two on the undercard of the Showtime-televised event at the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas on February 26th.
Lopez (1-0, 1 KO) of Oakland, California comes from a fighting family and was first incorporated into the world of boxing at the age of 5 by his father Kris Lopez, a former promising fighter himself and proprietor of Lightning’s Boxing Club in Oakland. His older brother Daniel is also a fighter, currently making a comeback. The boxing bloodlines run deep as there is family in the boxing game in Hawaii and Kris’ great grandfather Elmario Santos was a fighter of some description himself.
“My grandmother used to always tell me stories about him jumping rope and chasing roosters,” recalls Kris Lopez. “That was what he did. It is very interesting that boxing is in our family. Boxing is definitely in our family, from my grandmother’s side to my uncle’s. They would arrange bootleg backyard fights, but when it got to me…I took it to another level. I sought out to become a legitimate fighter. I struggled with it a bit and got married early, and I kind of blew my career. Here I am years later, trying to right my wrongs with my kids.”
“Lightning” Kris Lopez, as he was known during his fighting days, appears to be on his way to accomplishing his fight career goals with how he has developed David. “He’s a special kid,” says his father unapologetically. “We knew when he was little, he was a little bit different and a special, rare kid. The things he could do as a small child, even as a two-year-old baby he was freakishly strong. As a six-year-old we challenged him to do push-ups and he did like 130 push-ups. Every time he got the ball on the football field it was a touchdown. He had great open-field vision, dexterity, athleticism, coordination, toughness, everything you can imagine for an athlete he has, including being humble and having a tremendous work ethic.”
The young Lopez developed a strong fan base as an amateur with his natural abilities, speed and learned skills. Videos of interviews from David’s early amateur run are all over YouTube and are something to watch. His speaking abilities and comfort level with media at around age 11 is something rarely seen in sports.
“I used to hear my dad talk a lot and I pretty much just repeated after him,” says David. “Whatever my dad would say, I just learned from him. My dad is a businessman, he is a gym owner. I used to hear him with the clients and the people that would come into the gym and I just took a page out of his book.”
At just 17, Lopez finds himself signed to Mayweather Promotions, one of the most prominent promotional companies in the United States. Lopez was likely on the promotional firm’s radar for years, as sparring sessions and fights between Lopez and another prodigy and Mayweather understudy “Cash Flow” Floyd Diaz are something of internet legend. Once the pros became an option, Lopez’ team got a tryout in hopes of signing with “Money May’s” company.
“Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, lined it up for me to spar with one of their signed fighters, Kevin Johnson,” recalls David. “It was good work and Leonard liked what he saw and we went from there.”
Despite having a burgeoning fight career, David Lopez is still in high school attending class at Alameda High amongst the general population. “It’s cool,” says Lopez of the high schooler/boxer experience. “I get a lot of recognition from my friends and the teachers. They will say things like, ‘There goes the boxer’ or ‘There goes David “Dynamite.”‘ Other than that, it’s pretty normal. I’m still a normal citizen to myself. I’m just a professional boxer. It’s just a plus for me.”
Lopez turned pro in October of last year, and balancing his career and school was a little simpler during the pandemic. “The virtual learning and the zooms were much easier,” admits Lopez. “I got to wake up when I wanted to. As far as my schedule, I could go to the gym whenever and be in class at the same time. It was definitely easier.”
With in-person learning back in full-swing, Lopez has a different balancing act to perform, but he seems to be handling it well. “It’s pretty easy to manage,” says David. “I just go to school and get my work done. Whenever I have camps out in Vegas, I run it by my teachers and they give me extra work to do while I’m gone. That’s pretty easy to do.”
One of the main guys in camp with David is veteran pro and fellow southpaw Aaron Coley. David first began sparring Coley, a powerfully-built full grown man, in the early part of 2020 when he was probably just beginning to shave. “He would put him in at the tail end of the sparring,” recalls Coley (16-3-1, 7 KOs). “I had a few fights I was getting ready for and David would come in at the end.”
Lopez has been studying Coley’s game and learning what he can from the veteran, who is also trained by Kris Lopez. “He’s a very sharp fighter and he keeps my eye sharp,” David says of Coley. “The level of experience that he is on is very good. It’s a level of experience a lot of fighters don’t have, so every camp we try to get Aaron. He throws nice, in-tight punches and he’s able to get his head off the line and step around you. So definitely his in-tight work and I would say his punch selection and his work ethic [are what I emulate.]”
Coley, who turned pro in 2012, is equally complementary of Lopez. “He is sharp,” says Coley. “He is one of the better younger guys I have seen around. He’s fast and he has a lot of natural abilities. Then he comes in there and gets after it. The sky’s the limit for him. Some people are just made for certain stuff or bred into it. Like he is one of them guys. He can play everything too. He played other sports, football and is pretty good at hoop.”
Lopez’ hoop game got his name out there last year when he extended a public challenge for a one-on-one basketball game to his promoter, one Floyd Mayweather, on an episode of the Abrams Boxing Show podcast, hosted by our own Marc Abrams. It is a challenge that so far has not been accepted.
“Not yet,” Lopez answers to the question of whether he has heard back from Mayweather. “It is going to come though. We are staying ready for it. We have been doing a lot of explosive training to dunk on him when that time comes, so I hope that Floyd is ready. He does a lot of cross training during his off-time and he always stays sharp and he’s always in the gym, so I’m sure he can hoop still.”
On February 26th, Lopez will return to the ring on the undercard of Chris Colbert-Hector Luis Garcia at the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas, taking on tough guy Corey Champion, a fighter with an MMA background and two distance losses to mega prospects Xander Zayas and Vito Mielnicki Jr. on his boxing resume.
When it is presented to us, and they bring up Xander Zayas and Vito Mielnicki, and they both couldn’t knock him out,” Kris Lopez says of Champion (2-3, 2 KOs). “Those guys are both junior middleweights and couldn’t knock him out. This is a grown man, he’s coming down [in weight,] has never been knocked out and his two wins are knockouts. Why would you think my smaller 140-pound kid will knock him out? I know the answer to it: he probably can and he probably will. David has been knocking out 175-pound guys, knocking them out cold. But this guy, we are not going to underestimate him.”
Lopez has some sparring experience that will probably come in handy when fighting a rough MMA fighter with an awkward style. Another San Francisco Bay Area veteran often shares the ring with Lopez who is known for his rough and tough style, former welterweight contender Karim Mayfield.
“He knows I am going to give him some rough, unorthodox work,” says Mayfield. “But when I was sparring him more and more, I saw him adjusting to some of the stuff I was doing. And I have been sparring for quite a few years and some people weren’t able to adjust to it. So that was a good look for me to see him adjusting to the unorthodox stuff, because that is stuff a lot of world champions couldn’t adjust to. He is going to excel and do well. Speed and power, the whole nine.”
The Lopez family continues a long boxing tradition of the father-son, trainer-fighter duo. “It’s great having my dad with me,” says David. “I know that I am safe and that my dad has my best interests. I think it is really cool that I get to follow my dreams with my dad. He’s a part of it and he’s taking me to where I need to go through his knowledge from what he has experienced in his past. It is definitely dope that my father gets to be part of this and is my trainer of course.”
The long road ahead gets one fight shorter next Saturday for the Lopez family and David Lopez the fighter. Although the journey is just beginning for the fighting wunderkind of Alameda High, all the ingredients appear to be there for a successful run and young David Lopez is ready to do the work required, beginning with Corey Champion in Las Vegas.
“We are training hard and I am feeling as sharp as ever,” says David. “I can’t wait for February 26th to come.”
Photos by Michael Ham/TGB Promotions
Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at ortegajr.mario@gmail.com or followed on Twitter @MarioG280
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