By Jeff Zimmerman

Famed actor Sylvester Stallone became a worldwide box office star with his Rocky movie series where he stars as Rocky Balboa, an underdog boxer, that shows determination and courage fighting against all odds in and out of the ring as he faces the biggest and baddest heavyweights including the likes of Apollo Creed, Drago and Clubber Lang.

Because the Rocky franchise was so big globally and resonated with audiences everywhere and became a major influence on the sport of boxing, Stallone was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2011 in the “observer” category.

And now for close to two decades, a “real life” Rocky, the unheralded Josesito “The Riverside Rocky” Lopez (37-8, 20 KOs), has been battling some of the best in the sport, albeit not at heavyweight, but in and around the brutally tough welterweight division in some of the biggest venues around America including Staples Center LA, Barclays Center in Brooklyn and MGM Grand in Las Vegas to name a few.

No fighter exemplifies that “Rocky” underdog mentality more than Lopez as he has made a career of beating the odds and taking on fighters at or near their peak and doing quite well in the process, even when he didn’t win.

Lopez will continue his boxing journey, Saturday, Dec. 5, as he takes on Francisco Santana (25-8-1, !2 KOs), on the undercard of unified welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. in his comeback fight against two-division world champion Danny Garcia at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX.

The path for Lopez to the squared circle was different than most. He wasn’t born into a fight family, nor did he come from a broken home and needed a path to stay off the streets.

“My dad was never boxer or a fighter, but when I was young it was the sport my dad loved,” Lopez shared. “At a young age I got diagnosed with ADD, so I couldn’t sit still in class. When my parents took me to a doctor and the doctor said we need to give him some medicine, as my parents remember, to quote unquote ‘even me out,’ my dad said no way, we are going to try and put him in a sport that use some of his energy to where it hopefully helps him and that’s basically how I started with boxing.”

The ADD never became a problem from then on as Lopez starting boxing at just 8 years old and had his first amateur fight at 12.

“It was never so much an issue afterwards. I know I was a little hyperactive. I think I needed to use my energy to be done and tired by the end of the day and not have to be jumping around the couches in the house a lot.”

Lopez, meanwhile, has gone on to build one of the best resumes in the sport over the last two decades, especially from 2011-2013, when he fought a murderous row of four fights in succession that would make Rocky Balboa proud as he squared off against Jessie Vargas, Victor Ortiz, Canelo and Marcos Maidana. From there, he shared the ring with Andre Berto, was a punch away from stopping Keith Thurman in his comeback fight from surgery and retired John Molina Jr., last September on the Spence-Porter undercard when Spence captured the WBC belt from Shawn Porter at Staples Center in LA. Next month will be the first fight back for Lopez and Spence since their exciting wins in Los Angeles just over a year ago.

Lopez has never shied away from a challenge, so no reason to start now.

“I have no fear and I like to test myself against some of the best fighters undoubtedly and I have at almost the peak of their career,” said Lopez. “It just shows without risk there is no reward and I’m willing to take those risks and sometimes or a few of those times it hasn’t quite gone my way and came up a little bit short, but it doesn’t take anything away from what I am willing to risk in order to get a victory.

“Literally at the end, I know I am getting good fights and know my fans and people that support me will never be disappointed, but I want to win now more than anything,” Lopez continued. “I need to win and want to win, so I think I’m at a point where I have balanced everything out where I can use aggression, my style, my smarts, ring generalship, everything is right there where I can use everything I have learned, my physical attributes, my skills. I feel great.”

The biggest win of Lopez career to date was the Victor Ortiz fight on June 23, 2012, when he stopped the heavily favored Ortiz, who was coming off a controversial loss to Floyd Mayweather. Lopez broke Ortiz jaw and he was unable to come out for the 10th round. Ortiz was lined up to face Canelo in a big money fight but was scrapped after Lopez pulled the stunning upset in a back and forth battle. Lopez, instead, got the nod to face Canelo for the WBC super welterweight title and although showed his toughness, he was no match for the stronger, bigger Canelo and was stopped late in the 5th round.

Lopez stated after the Ortiz fight, “I knew the longer it went, the better chance I’d have. He hits hard, but I was never going to quit. I knew it was a close fight on the scorecards, and I knew I could press him more and more if I continued. He’s like a tree. I had to chop him down.”

Not only did Lopez show the entertaining, come forward style that has become his calling card and made him a fan favorite, but it also earned him the nickname, “The Riverside Rocky” something that Lopez takes great pride.

“I take that nickname with positivity,” said Lopez. “You know actually the first time I received that nickname was at my Victor Ortiz fight when “The Riverside Rocky” was basically created.

“Before then, it was my growing up nickname Josesito, meaning Little Jose, that fight, it was a little rough early, but I withstood the onslaught and came out on top. A good friend of mine, ex promoter, Kenny Thompson was the one who gave me that nickname and I owe a lot of my early part of my career to my good friend Kenny Thompson.”

This underdog mentality has been the fuel for Lopez his whole career.

“For the most part that has been my career, I take big challenges and never say no to a fight and I’m glad and thankful for the opportunity and I know I have come up short just a little,” Lopez explained. “But all the fights I have been into and even the ones that I have lost I gave them a run for their money.

“I’m still here and I feel better than ever. I am going to win. And I want to have the opportunity to continue fighting amongst the best. Until that time comes where I can’t compete with the best then I will know when it is time to go.”

Even at 36, Lopez has been rejuvenated with Robert Garcia as his trainer and made life even better when Garcia opened his Robert Garcia Boxing Academy (RGBA) in his backyard of Riverside.

“Wow it was basically my calling, it was meant to be,” Lopez said. “Yes, it could have been an earlier moment, but you know what, I am happy and don’t regret anything that I have done.

“Robert Garcia has helped me tremendously and has really brought life back into my career and I’m very content. I’m thankful to God that he put me in this position, and I am going to make the most out of it and there will never be a time I don’t work hard for what I want.”

Lopez continued, “I think that the training change that I made and switching over to Robert Garcia really invigorated my hunger for boxing much more. I’m a lot hungrier, feel much more satisfied entering training after my fights. I want to hit the gym, I want to learn, and I want to get better, stronger.

“And training among some of the best fighters and easily to me the best gym in Robert Garcia Boxing Academy, I have to be on top all the time because we have some young killers that are really good in that gym and I have to show them that I’m right there.”

Some of those young killers Lopez gets to work with include unified 140lb champ Jose Ramirez and future champ and rising star Vergil Ortiz Jr.

“I have sparred with Vergil more times than I have with Ramirez,” Lopez sated. They are some of the best young fighters there are in the world. Being in the ring with Mikey Garcia, some Olympians, there is never a shortage of quality sparring not to mention the best trainer in the world.”

Lopez, like everybody else in boxing, believes Ortiz is a future star.

“Undoubtedly, he has all the tools required to become really one of the best,” Lopez stated with confidence. “I think he is on par and easily able to beat some of these champions right now. His moment is almost coming, and the key is being patient, but I’m sure he can be a legit, full world champion already.

“He’s one of my favorite fighters, I’m excited for his near future. I think he is going to do a lot of big things in boxing and become one of the best fighters in the world.”

Lopez, though, has Santana on his mind and knows he will be a tough fight come December 5 and his grateful to his team for getting him on another massive stage at AT&T Stadium.

“First off, I am very thankful to be fighting and continuing my career and thankful for my health,” Lopez said. “My management with Mikey Garcia and Al Haymon , everyone knows I am an action fighter, I am a TV fighter that they will always want me to be on TV because my fights are always can’t miss no matter who they are with and Francisco Santana is a tough guy.

“They never match me lightly, they always put me with some of the tough guys, even though sometimes I am supposed to have an easier fight. Santana is one of the toughest guys there is that’s probably not quite holding a belt. We are in there for a great match, exciting fight and especially for TV and I have not only prepared well, I’m at a good moment in my career and I feel like I could give people a great show and give them excitement.”

And although the “real life” Rocky aka “The Riverside Rocky” will likely never become the box office star as the one in the movies, he continues to be showcased on some of boxing’s biggest venues, one fight after another.

“My goal is for 2021 to have a title shot, but first things first,” stated Lopez. “I have to take care of Santana and handle business in the ring Dec 5 and I’m not looking past Santana. I’m focused on what’s ahead of me and then with everything coming out positive I will give myself an opportunity to continue fighting amongst the best.”

For someone who started boxing because he was diagnosed with ADD, that’s a knockout attitude and perhaps Sylvester Stallone will take note and find a new script in there for another blockbuster Rocky movie down the road.

And like Stallone, Lopez doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, anytime soon.

“Every fight is fight by fight, but I don’t really see retirement in the near, near future.”