Angel Acosta will defend his WBO junior flyweight title against Ganigan Lopez on March 30, Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker Robert Diaz told RingTV late Saturday night.

The 12-round bout will take place at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California. DAZN will stream the card.

The fight will be another chapter in the rivalry between Puerto Rico and Mexico and will pit Acosta, a hard-hitting puncher, against Lopez, a boxer-puncher.

Acosta (19-1, 19 knockouts), who resides in San Juan, Puerto Rico, knocked out Mexico’s Abraham Rodriguez in the second round of his most recent bout, on October 13 in Las Vegas.

The 28-year-old Acosta has won his last three bouts since losing to Kosei Tanaka, of Japan, by unanimous decision in May of 2017.

Acosta is ranked No. 5 by The Ring Magazine at 108 pounds.

The southpaw Lopez (35-8, 19 KOs) was victorious in his most recent bout, on November 23, outboxing and winning a unanimous decision over former junior bantamweight title challenger Ricardo Rodriguez.

Prior to the Rodriguez fight, Lopez, who is 37 and currently resides in Mexico City, was knocked out in the second round, at the hands of WBC junior flyweight titleholder Ken Shiro, on May 25 in Tokyo.

Lopez did win the WBC title almost three years ago, by majority decision over Yu Kimura in Kyoto, Japan.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV.com since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper, BoxingScene.com and FightNights.com. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @FSalazarBoxing

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