Ganigan Lopez believes he has one more run in him to fight for a major title belt. For that to happen, Lopez, a former WBC junior flyweight titleholder, is moving up in weight and must defeat an upset-minded foe with an unbeaten streak.

Lopez will square off against Armando Torres tonight at Auditorio Blackberry in Lopez’s hometown of Mexico City. The fight will air on Telemundo (11:35 p.m. ET/ PT).

At Thursday’s weigh-in, both Lopez (36-9, 19 knockouts) and Torres (24-18, 18 KOs) weighed in at 111.2 pounds.

Lopez, who is still ranked No. 5 by the WBC at 108 pounds (and currently ranked No. 9 at 112 pounds by the WBO), won by split decision over Saul Juarez in his most recent bout on July 19. The fight took place almost four months after Lopez lost by knockout in round eight to then-WBO junior flyweight titleholder Angel Acosta, a fight in which Lopez started well but faded late.

The 37-year-old obviously cannot afford a loss at this stage of his career. Lopez did defeat Torres back in January of 2011 but Torres has won his last three bouts. Promoter Tuto Zabala believes both will be at their best but Lopez has more to lose as a world title shot could be up for grabs sooner than later.

“Winning this fight would put Ganigan at the doorstep of fighting for a world title belt at 112 pounds, which is a new weight class for him,” Zabala told The Ring on Wednesday night. “He still has a lot of hunger to again become a world champion. Torres is not an easy fight. He has a lot of hunger to win and he asked for this fight.”

In his most recent bout on July 19, the 38-year-old Torres knocked out Alejandro Villasenor in the second round.

Prior to winning his last three bouts, Torres had dropped his previous six, losing to former junior flyweight titleholder Adrian Hernandez in November of 2014 and 10 months later to Makasole Tete of South Africa.

In the co-feature, Giovanni Garcia (5-2-1) will face Sergio Mejia (3-3) in an eight-round flyweight bout.

Featherweight Edwin Palomares (12-2, 3 KOs) will square off against Flavio Valverde (2-2) in an eight-round bout. The 23-year-old Palomares has won his last five bouts.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring 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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