Angel Acosta reportedly has an opponent for his upcoming WBO light flyweight title defense on March 30
Ring TV reports that Acosta will take on former world champion Ganigan Lopez in the main event of a boxing card at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California. The fight would be streamed on DAZN and be promoted by Golden Boy Promotions.
Acosta won the WBO title on the undercard of fellow Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto's retirement fight against Sadam Ali in December 2017 by knocking out Juan Alejo. Acosta would defend his title twice in 2018: once against Carlos Buitrago in June in Puerto Rico and once against Abraham Rodriguez in October, both of which were inside the distance. The win against Rodriguez headlined a Golden Boy Promotions card streamed exclusively on Facebook Watch.
Lopez previously held the WBC light flyweight title from March 2016 to May 2017. Lopez won the title with a majority decision over Yu Kimura and made one successful title defense before losing to Ken Shiro. The 37-year-old Lopez unsuccessfully challenged for the WBC belt last year when he was knocked out by Shiro in the second round of their rematch.
Acosta would not be the first world champion from Puerto Rico to headline a boxing card at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in 2019 as Alberto Machado recently fought at that same venue on February 9 on DAZN as well. Machado lost the WBA "Regular" super featherweight title to Andrew Cancio when Cancio defeated him in the fourth round.
