Luis Alberto “El Venado” Lopez will make the first defense of his IBF featherweight world title against Michael “Mick” Conlan this Saturday, May 27th, at The SSE Arena in Conlan’s hometown of Belfast. Lopez-Conlan and the undercard bouts listed below will stream live and exclusively on ESPN+ in the U.S. beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT. Lopez (27-2, 15 KOs), from Mexicali, Mexico, navigated bumpy terrain to become a world champion. Despite losing early in his career to Abraham Montoya and Ruben Villa, he regained his momentum with victories over unbeaten standouts Gabriel Flores Jr. and Isaac Lowe. After two stay-busy wins, Lopez received his shot at the title, defeating Josh Warrington last December in enemy territory in Leeds, England. Now under the tutelage of Kay Koroma, he is set to make his first title defense.
Conlan, a 31 year-old Olympic bronze medalist, made an unsuccessful bid for the WBA regular featherweight title against Leigh Wood in March 2022 but bounced back later that year with wins over Miguel Marriaga and Karim Guerfi. Less than six months after his first-round knockout against Guerfi, he will return to The SSE Arena for the third straight time.
In other ESPN+ streaming action from Belfast:
In a battle of undefeated featherweights, Nick Ball (17-0, 10 KOs) rolls into a twelve-rounder against Ludumo Lamati (21-0-1, 11 KOs). Ball, hailing from Liverpool, England, defeated Isaac Lowe via sixth-round TKO in April 2022. He followed that up with stoppage wins against Nathanael Kakololo and Jesus Ramirez Rubio. Lamati, from South Africa, enters the bout after his fourth-round knockout win against Mark Anthony Geraldo last November.
Junior lightweight Anthony Cacace (20-1, 7 KOs) defends his IBO world title against Poland's Damian Wrzesinski (26-2-2, 7 KOs). Cacace is 5-0 after suffering his first defeat in 2017 and is coming off a decision win against Michael Magnesi last September. Wrzesinski returns to the ring after decisioning Artjoms Ramlavs last October.
Pierce O’Leary (11-0, 6 KOs) appears in a ten-round junior welterweight tilt against Romania’s Alin Florin Ciorceri (17-3, 7 KOs).
