On August 12, 2023, 25-year-old Melvin Lopez (29-1, 19 KOs) and 31-year-old Emmanuel Rodriguez (21-2, 13 KOs) fought for the vacant IBF bantamweight title.
Lopez came in to the fight on a 8-fight win streak with a 63% KO rate, and was fighting after a gap of 8 months and 1 day. Rodríguez was on a 2-fight win streak with a 56% KO rate, and fighting after a layoff of 9 months and 28 days.
Emmanuel Rodríguez defeated Melvin Lopez via unanimous decision . Rodríguez improves his record to 22-2, while Lopez adds a loss to his record at 29-2.
On October 25, 2019, a 21-year-old Melvin Lopez (21-0, 12 KOs) and a 30-year-old Chilean boxer Jose Velasquez (26-6-2, 18 KOs) met in the ring in a bantamweight bout.
Lopez came in to the fight on a 21-fight win streak with a 57% KO rate, and was fighting after a gap of 2 months and 29 days. Velásquez was on a 18-fight win streak with a 52% KO rate, and fighting after a layoff of 3 months and 20 days.
José Velásquez stopped Melvin Lopez via TKO in the 9th round. Velásquez improves his record to 27-6-2 (19 KOs), while Lopez adds a loss to his record at 21-1.