Former world champion Emmanuel “Manny” Rodriguez (21-2, 13 KOs) will take on streaking contender Melvin “Melo” Lopez (29-1, 19 KOs) for the vacant IBF bantamweight title (formerly held by Naoya Inoue) headlining action live on Showtime on August 12 from The Theater at MGM National Harbor in Maryland. The telecast will also see undefeated super lightweight Gary Antuanne Russell (16-0, 16 KOs) taking on fellow unbeaten Kent Cruz (16-0-3, 10 KOs) in the 10-round co-main event, plus welterweight Travon Marshall (8-0, 7 KOs) duels unbeaten two-time Olympian Gabriel Maestre (5-0-1, 4 KOs) in the 10-round welterweight telecast opener.
August 12 will be a busy day with AJ vs. Whyte, and Navarrete vs. Valdez on separate telecasts.
If you only look at his loss, you come away thinking one thing, but Rodriguez is a pretty good fighter. He beat Jason Moloney, dominated Paul Butler, beat Russell in his last fight and a lot of people (myself included) think he beat Gaballo as well. I expect him to dominate Lopez in this one, but we’ll see.
Russel is not unbeaten, He lost with Manny Rodriguez, Take a note!!
He is undefeated. Rodriguez beat Gary Antonio. This is Gary Antuanne, his brother.
The unbeaten is the 140 pounds, the other is 118 and lost to Rodriguez, but the three of them use the same passport and security number under Gary Russell name, very convenient
Can’t lie when I saw title I thought it was Manny Pacquiao vs Carmelo (MELO) Anthony in an exhibition bout.
Clickbait title..Manny Melo