Not long after Nogales middleweight David “Destroyer” Lopez died in a shower of bullets on a July 2017 night in his Sonora hometown, the stories started spreading wildly.
According to media reports, Lopez, a frequent headliner on Desert Diamond Casino cards between 2003-09, was out driving his pickup that night with his 14-year-old son when he was stopped by heavily armed attackers.
The son survived. Lopez had no chance.
The speculation goes well beyond that, surrounding what may or may not have happened leading up to the attack, and what may or may not have happened afterward.
“I’ve heard multiple stories,” says Oscar Valdez, the Nogales and Tucson-bred WBC super featherweight champ who will defend his title on Friday at Casino del Sol against Robson Conceicao after being cleared following a positive test for a partially-banned substance. “You know, sometimes stories get out of hand, they go crazy, and then you don’t know what to believe.”
Roger Woods doesn’t know what to believe, either. A former boxing trainer who worked with Valdez when the boxer spent his early years in Tucson, Woods says one version he heard about the aftermath sounded “like something out of New York City in the ’30s.”
Whatever happened, this much is fact: Lopez was a locally popular fighter during a 20-year boxing career who peaked during his Desert Diamond years and almost won a world middleweight title.
Lopez lost only once in 12 fights at the Tohono O’odham casino, delighting the core of fans from the Tucson and Nogales areas.
“Many aficionados made that drive northwards to Desert Diamond; Lopez drew disproportionate to his talents,” 15rounds.com’s Bart Barry wrote after Lopez’s death. “He was a durable spoiler type, a natural underdog, an attrition fighter, without any particular punch or charisma.”
Oscar Valdez, right, connects with Genesis Servania during their featherweight title bout in 2017. Valdez retained the title by unanimous decision.
This was also undeniably true about Lopez: Valdez idolized him.
They trained together in the same Nogales gym when Lopez was in the peak of his career and Valdez was one of many teenage amateurs hoping to be in his place someday.
“We had great fighters come out of that boxing gym… but the one I had the best relationship with was ‘Destroyer’ Lopez,” Valdez told the Star last month. “He would always mess around with us kids, joke around. He used to always check us because as kids we used to always be jumping around and he always tried to put authority on all of us. But at the same time he was a very nice guy to all of us.”
Every time Lopez fought at Desert Diamond, Valdez and his father would make sure to be there.
The trip was a familiar one: Valdez already had roots on both sides of the border, having been born in Nogales and spending his elementary school years in Tucson before his parents divorced.
Valdez now lives mostly in Hermosillo, Sonora, but said he still returns to Tucson often. His mother and grandmother are still in town along with countless other relatives.
“My grandma had 14 kids, so they’re all distributed all over Mexico and all over Tucson,” Valdez said. “I’ve even got family members over there in Ohio and Michigan. I’m just fortunate enough to say that I’m from the border. It was a great experience going to Tucson, going back to Nogales, going to Phoenix and Hermosillo. That really helps me knowing and understanding the cultures on both sides.”
The Desert Diamond Casino was at the intersection of Valdez’s life, in more ways than one. Located on Interstate 19 en route to Nogales, the casino hosted regular boxing cards in the first decade of the century, many engineered by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. Some of them featured Lopez.
But what nearly was one of Lopez’s biggest nights all dissolved at the very end. Lopez had knocked down Fulgencio Zuniga in the seventh round of a January 2005 fight for the IBA world middleweight title, and was in good position … until he was knocked down twice in the 12th and final round. He lost by TKO.
David “Destroyer” Lopez is caught with a left by Fulgencio Zuniga in the eighth round of their 2005 fight at Desert Diamond Casino. The stunning TKO loss devastated Oscar Valdez, who grew up to become the WBC world super featherweight champion.
“I will never forget it,” Valdez said. “He was winning the whole rounds and then he was knocked down and they stopped the right. It was a horrible night for us people in Nogales and Tucson.”
Lopez fought for 10 more years and appeared eight more times at the Desert Diamond. He finished his career in 2015, just when Valdez was ascending.
Valdez (29-0, 23 KOs) captured up the WBO world featherweight title in 2016, came home to beat Genesis Servania in September 2017 at Tucson Arena, and fought twice in the MGM Grand “bubble” during the height of COVID-19 restrictions.
Meanwhile, he switched trainers to Eddy Reynoso, a move his Tucson supporters praised, saying that may have helped him score a stunning upset of Miguel Berchelt with a 10th-round knockout that gave him the title on Feb. 20 in Las Vegas.
Having learned from rugged pros such as Lopez in Nogales and Nito Bravo in Tucson, Valdez had previously been known more for offense — and taking a lot of punches.
“Oscar just absorbed the gym,” said Mike Agredano, whose family has longtime ties to the Aztlan Boxing Gym in South Tucson, where Valdez also spent time as a youth. “Oscar just absorbed Nito, David Lopez, and anybody else that came to the program. He was just a sponge and the training he got his last fight was pretty amazing. Fights previous to that, Oscar always took a lot of punishment and I was really hoping somebody would work with him on that.”
Woods, saying he was “screaming at the TV” with joy when Valdez recorded the 10th -ound knockout of Berchelt, said he also noticed a difference with Reynoso.
This time, Reynoso and Valdez will have to navigate a matchup with a much different fighter in Conceicao (16-0, 8 KOs), who is five inches taller than Valdez at 5 feet 10 ½ inches and has a 70-inch reach that is four inches longer than Valdez’s reach.
“Eddie’s more of a defensive strategist,” says Woods, now a boxing official for the Pasqua Yaqui Tribe Athletic Commission who says he will not judge Valdez’s fight because of their relationship. “He’s smart. He’s been around the game since he was a little kid and he’s very good trainer. They work on fundamentals and I think boxing, you have to you have to overcome fundamentals and be where you can have good sparring.”
Valdez has been preparing for Conceicao in San Diego. He generated some controversy when he reportedly tested positive last month for a stimulant known as phentermine, an FDA approved prescription drug that is primarily used for weight loss.
But last week, the WBC and Pasqua Yaqui commission cleared the fight, saying Valdez did not gain a competitive advantage by having a trace amount of the substance in his system. The Pasqua Yaqui commission, which oversees combat events at Casino del Sol, says it follows a World Anti-Doping Association standard that considers phentermine allowable outside of the day of competition.
The ruling will allow Valdez to defend his new WBC world super featherweight title for the first time — and at home.
By doing so, he’ll be bringing boxing to Tucson at an even higher level than Lopez ever did. Valdez won’t quite put it that way — “because it might sound like I’m bragging, and I have nothing but respect for ‘Destroyer’ Lopez,” he said — but indicated he’s humbled by the comparison.
“I really enjoyed those moments of watching David ‘Destroyer’ Lopez and it’s just a tragedy that he passed away,” Valdez said. “I just picture myself, saying `Wow, that kid that who was looking at ‘Destroyer’ Lopez — I’m the one out there now and maybe there’s a kid out there as a fan who’s looking at me. I might be inspiring him the same way ‘Destroyer’ Lopez was inspiring to me.
“I think life is very beautiful sometimes because you’ve got to give back. I’m very excited to come back to Tucson and now I’m the ‘Destroyer’ Lopez of my era.”
