Power-punching Felix Alvarado will look to make the third defense of his IBF junior flyweight title when he faces Erick Lopez Garcia at The Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas on Saturday.

Alvarado, who is rated No. 2 by the Ring at 108 pounds, expects to engage in a fan-friendly bout with his Mexican opponent.

“He is a strong rival, he likes to go inside, like me, so we have similar styles and it should be an exciting fight,” Alvarado (36-2, 31 knockouts) told The Ring through his manager, William Ramirez.

“I always believe in my preparation and I never underestimate any rival.”

The 32-year-old Nicaraguan impressively snapped an enforced 21-month hiatus, due to the pandemic, when he stopped DeeJay Kriel in 10 rounds in January.

“I was very happy,” said Alvarado. “I feel it was a great performance. [It was] very difficult because of the quality DeeJay Kriel had. But thank God it was a great triumph and the type of performance I wanted to shine [with] in the United States.”

For the second consecutive time, Felix will share the spotlight with twin brother Rene, who will be facing Roger Gutierrez at junior lightweight. Rene dropped a razor thin 12-round split decision to the same opponent earlier this year.

“It is a dream for me to be defending my title on the same card as my brother,” Felix said proudly. “Unfortunately, we both did not come out victorious [last time]. However, this time I believe the dream will be completed with both of us coming out with arms raised in victory.”

Alvarado isn’t the kind of fighter to call out others and prefers to leave that to his team.

“I have faith in my manager, William Ramirez. He’s constantly updating me on our future plans,” he said. “My job is to train and fight. I always trust him to put me in the best situation for my career.”

Ramirez hopes to secure “El Gemelo” bigger fights in the not-too-distant future.

“We would like to unify titles with any of the other champions in the division,” said Ramirez. “We spoke with [Golden Boy matchmaker] Robert Diaz. He congratulated us [following the Kriel win] and told us that this was the fighter he wanted to see show off his skills and he would continue working on bigger and better things for our career.”

Garcia turned professional in 2015. He lost four of his first eight bouts, however, the tough start served as an effective learning curve. The 27-year-old from Guadalajara now sports a 16-5-1 (10 KOs) record and received a draw against former WBC strawweight titlist Oswaldo Novoa (D 10) in 2018. He also ran Ring rated Daniel Matellon close in a majority decision loss last February and has won two fights since.

The Alvarado-Garcia bout will be streamed live on DAZN. The main event sees Vergil Ortiz Jr. face Egidijus Kavaliauskas.

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at [email protected] and you can follow him on Twitter @AnsonWainwright

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