Tony "The Tiger" Lopez: Champion fighter wants Roatan kids to box

Courtesy Tony Lopez
Lopez, in fighting shape, wears a champion belt.

Tony “The Tiger” Lopez is a three-time World Champion boxer who won World Titles in the Junior Lightweight, Lightweight and Junior Welterweight divisions of professional boxing. Tony compiled a pro record of 58 wins, 8 losses and 1 draw against some of the best boxers of his era. Tony beat the heavily favored Rocky Lockridge in what was named the “Fight of the Year” in 1987 for his first championship belt. Tony now does a lot of charity work in the Sacramento, California area where he now resides.

Tony came to Roatan to visit his friend Herb Morici, the developer of Pineapple Villas in French Harbour. They would both tell you Tony came to The Bay Islands to have a good time, but he also came here to start a boxing program to help keep kids off the streets, out of trouble and into the organized, coached and disciplined sport of boxing. Tony is a great, personable guy. I know that if he and the other prominent people on the island get together and work at it, the boxing program on Roatan will soon become a reality. This is part 1 of our interview.

Courtesy Bruce Starr/Honduras This Week
Tony "The Tiger" Lopez throws a right hook at Bruce Starr, aka Roatan Bruce.

Roatan Bruce: Tell me what it was like to be as a “soon to be” World Champion boxer?

Tony “The Tiger” Lopez: I was born and raised in Sacramento. At 20 years old, I turned professional and at 25, I won my first world title from Rocky Lockridge who was the 130 pound champion at the time. In 1990, I fought for another title from Juan John John Molina in 1992, and later I was the Lightweight champion when I beat Joey Gamache.

Roatan Bruce: How did you first get into organized boxing?

Tony “The Tiger” Lopez: My father was in organized boxing. Then he got married and had to quit. He started boxing when he was 12. As a kid, I was always getting into fights. One day, my brother was on the way to the gym
with his trainer. He said to me, “Hey, you want to fight, get into the car.” I got into that car at the age of ten and never looked back.

Roatan Bruce: What kind of programs did you get into to become a disciplined enough athlete to become a world champion?

Tony “The Tiger” Lopez: I didn’t have any discipline. My father disciplined
me. When I started training, it was at the Police Athletic League in Sacramento. It was the PAL gym. I am a product of PAL. The police departments in the area put a gym together for the kids to stay out of trouble. I grew up in a neighborhood where it was real easy to get into trouble. Because I like fighting, I focused my energies on boxing. That is what I put my energy into and it turned out to be the best for me.

Roatan Bruce: It is rare for me to meet someone who says they love fighting. You are such a stocky guy; you were a 130 pound boxer?

Tony “The Tiger” Lopez: Yes, that was 70 pounds ago. (Laughter in the entire studio that included Mayor Dale Jackson, Bay Islands Governor Arlie Thompson, Roatan Municipal Police Chief Joseph Solomon, friend Herb Morici and several others who came to meet Tony.)

I was 130 pounds when I was 16. At 29, I could not stay at the weight level anymore and that was when I lost my first title. That was one fight that I don’t remember. I was fighting Brian Mitchell from South Africa. I had to lose so much weight to make the limit at the fight; I remember all my fights except that one. I even went all the way up to a light heavyweight. I should have stayed there because I had two knockouts at that weight. But I finished my boxing career at 140 pounds.

Roatan Bruce: What was it like to not only get in front of ten or fifteen thousand people in an arena, but then there are the television audiences and people watching the videos of the fight decades later? Once you get fighting, can you forget about all that or do you think, I don’t want to make a fool of
myself in front of all these people?

Tony “The Tiger” Lopez: I was different. I liked fighting. When I train, I train hard. When I play, I play. My father taught me there was a time to play and
a time to work. I had 34 wins and 1 loss (I got the one loss by being
disqualified) when I fought Rocky Lockridge. I found myself in front of a guy I watched on television when was growing up in the sport. This was the guy I had to beat to become world champion. Every station in the world was coming down to interview me. It was neat. I was in heaven. I was like, this is
what it is all about. Nervous? No, because I did my work. Fighters are confident. Some people call them cocky. But remember, I am stepping in front of someone who is trying to do the same thing to me I am trying to do to him. At 58-8-1, I have been more successful than not.

To this day, I don’t pick on people. I don’t look for trouble. I am a happy-go-lucky guy. I have fought all my life. I have been hit all my life. I just don’t want to do it for free. Boxing is a great thing for youths. It got me out of the streets.
Boxing was what I wanted to do. I hung out all the time as a kid with my buddies in the park and got into trouble. But once I started boxing, I couldn’t do that anymore because I was training in the gym at 3 pm everyday. I didn’t have time to hang out. All I had time for was to go and pick up my workout
bag after school and work out until 5 pm. I still had to run that night, so I was always busy.

Roatan Bruce: Was it hard to keep your weight down at weightins? Tony “The Tiger” Lopez: Even back then, I had to watch my weight because I was always a little heavy. Today, I don’t diet anymore because I was on a diet
for twenty seven years. I am not dieting anymore but I work out everyday. I still work out everyday. If I go without working out for a week, I am mad.

Part 2 of Roatan Bruce's interview with Tony "The Tiger" Lopez will appear in next week's edition of HTW.

Bruce Starr is the host of The
Roatan Bruce Show heard on 106.5
FM weekdays from 9 am to 1 pm.

Please visit his website at roatanbruce.
com to hear this interview
in full or all previous interviews.

Contact him at roatanbruce@
yahoo.com with your comments or
suggestions

THE COMEDY SECTION
(Repeats added due to popular demand)

If man evolved from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and apes?

If someone with multiple personalities threatens to harm himself, is it considered a hostage situation?

Give me just one other word for synonym or thesaurus.

If the police arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain silent?
How is it possible to have a ‘civil’ war?

ELECTION TIME - THE YEAR: 1941

Candidate AAA: Associated with crooked politicians, consults with astrologists. He has had two mistresses; he is a chain smoker and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.

Candidate BBB: Kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every single evening.

Candidate CCC: Decorated war hero; vegetarian, doesn’t smoke, drinks an occasional beer and hasn’t had any extramarital affairs. Which candidate would you have gotten your vote?

Candidate AAA was Franklin D. Roosevelt, candidate BBB was Winston Churchill and candidate CCC was Adolph Hitler.

BETTER HURRY

You have less than a month and a half to purchase your advance ticket for the upcoming SUNDAY, June 15th, 2008 edition of the ROATAN INTERNATIONAL SHRIMP FESTIVAL. And remember, time flies when you’re living on Roatan. Due to mass confusion and old age, we mistakenly said Saturday June 15th in the last issue. We stand corrected. They have definitely decided on Sunday, June 15th. Sorry.

IT’S A BIRD...NO, IT’S A PLANE...NO,
IT’S A BIRD WITH DOORS!

Where was it circling to land? Who might be aboard? What are they doing on Roatan? The answers: it landed on top of the Mayan Princess Resort in West Bay; as for who was aboard, being good hoteliers, no one would tell us who was in the passengers seats, just that it was someone who qualified for the Sosa VIP lounge at the airport.

Now, following a story in a mainland newspaper leads us to believe it could have been Mike Douglas and his lovely lady, Wife of Zorro, Catherine Zeta Jones Douglas. When we ventured that guess we did get just a wee bit of a rise out of the housekeeper.

Hey, we’re not stalking, just doing our job. We have Gio’s staked out as they ate several meals there on their last visit. And besides, we love their stone crab. More to follow, they have to come outside sooner or later.

Costa Rica is often considered Central America’s tourism powerhouse and one of the prime ecotourism destinations in the world. After just completing a two
week jaunt through Costa Rica, here are some of my observations concerning Costa Rican tourism and some reflections on Honduran tourism as well.

Last year approximately 2 million foreign tourists visited Costa Rica, making it the undisputed leader in Central American
tourism. Honduras saw the arrival of some 1 million tourists in the same period. The vast majority of visitors to Costa Rica came from the U.S. The majority of them landed in San Jose, but a substantial percentage flew into the Liberia airport, strategically located close to Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast which is home to most of Costa Rica’s beachfront development. There, one can find many
newly built gated communities, large scale condo and townhouse projects, marinas, golf courses and coastal real estate for sale.

Interestingly, Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast has no large-scale tourism projects to compare with their Pacific coast. Projects on the Caribbean are all very small-scale, with small family owned and operated hotels and nothing in the way of large condo, resort or marina projects to be seen. It seems like the Costa Rican government has made a decision to promote the Pacific Coast over the Caribbean in terms of large-scale tourism and real estate development, which is just the opposite that we are seeing in Honduras, where the most development can be seen on the Caribbean island of Roatan and soon in the new Tela Bay megaproject, the Los Micos Resort.

Costa Rica is well known for its emphasis on nature and ecotourism, with many national parks and protected areas scattered around the country. Parks in Costa Rica are not mere ¨paper parks ¨ as one will find in Honduras. In Costa
Rica, protected areas receive real protection and there are visitors centers, bathrooms, showers, trails, daily maintenance and other facilities and services offered which is a light years difference from Honduras where most protected areas receive precious little protection and services and facilities are
severely deficient or usually nonexistent.

However due to the sheer volume of visitors to Costa Rica and its protected areas, many towns and villages near protected areas have been overdeveloped
and have become over touristy .. at least for my taste. Towns such as Fortuna, which is home base for exploring the popular active Arenal Volcanoe and Santa Elena, the closest town to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and Santa Elena Reserve are two examples of inland towns which have been enveloped by tourism and tourism related businesses. On the Caribbean coast, Puerto Viejo, is a small town which has been inundated by tourism has lost much if its authentic small town feel, as tourism has engulfed the town.

For a country which puts so much emphasis on its eco-friendly, pure image, Caribbean towns are very dirty and uncollected garbage piles up on many street corners on a daily basis, especially in Puerto Vijo for example, which sends out not only odiferous odors but also
emits the clear message that much of Costa Ricas eco-pure image is just that - an image which has been created to attract tourists. Sure the country does have more protected area than any other
nation in Central America and it is
protection with ¨teeth ¨ but tourist towns piled high with garbage does little to fortify its image as a ecodestination.

As a comparison with Honduras, Copan Ruinas often receives high marks from visitors for the cleanliness of the town, as residents and the municipality take care
to clean up trash and maintain a regular garbage collection service. Unfortunately, many other tourist destinations in Honduras do not have such a conscientious populace or on-the-ball municipal officials.

Another observation regarding Costa Rica is the quality of accommodations. In terms of bang for buck, hotels .. at least the ones that I stayed in and visited, provided not very good value for the dollar.
Prices were often high considering
the type of room, amenities, etc. Food was usually a good value, but more often than not, restaurants that were mainly frequented by tourists were pricey and quality low, considering the high prices
charged. One tactic used by tourist restaurants whether they be cheaper or more pricey places was that they automatically tacked on a 10% service charge to the bill - which is ok if the food and service is good, however when food and service leaves much to be desired
- as is often the case in tourist restaurants, then the mandatory service charge leaves me with a decidedly bad taste in my mouth. In Honduras for example, only top shelf restaurants tend to put a 10% service charge on bills, with
most restaurants serving tourists, leaving it up to each diner as to whether he or she chooses to leave a tip or not, which to me makes much more sense.


Hotels in Honduras I believe tend to provide better value, for $45 and up one can stay in very nice accommodations with excellent service, often with breakfast included. For $70 and up one can expect excellent value and a very
nice room with amenities. There are even many low end hotels in Honduras which provide economical rates and more than adequate facilities and comfort. In Costa Rica though, often expensive rooms are
nothing special and offer poor value and lower end rooms are often very basic and offer little in the way of cleanliness and comfort. One must often resort to relatively high end accommodations in Costa Rica in order to achieve a decent level of quality of accommodations.

Transport in Costa Rica is a snap, buses are newer model buses, in good shape, clean and cheap, often $1 per hour of journey time and even small towns have
nice, modern bus terminals with all the amenities such as shops, groceries, restaurants, clean rest rooms, computerized ticketing, etc. As well Costa Rica’s tourism fame has enabled a myriad of companies to offer up shuttle services to a wide variety of popular destinations. Shuttles are fast, comfortable, provide hotel pickup and are
considerably more expensive than regular buses. Taxis are also a good value with the average fare running $2 - $3 for a well maintained, late model cab.

Transport in Honduras is also a good deal, fares are cheap, many buses on long distance routes are quite new, but on many routes buses are still very old and deteriorated and service leaves much
to be desired. Bus stations in Honduras are few and far between. For example, the newly completed bus terminal in San Pedro Sula is the only bus terminal in the entire country. City buses in Honduras
are infamous for the poor condition of buses and lack of service. In Costa Rica, city buses are modern, clean and provide decent service.

Perhaps trying to compare tour i sm in Cos ta Ri ca and Honduras is like trying to compare apples and oranges, Honduras has a poverty rate that hovers around 70 - 80%, whilst in Costa Rica, a
mere 16% of the population .. give or take a few percentage points are classified as poor. Public education in Costa Rica is decent, while in Honduras only a lucky few manage to graduate from High School and a miniscule number go to University.
Wages in Costa Rica are much higher, corruption is much less, there is less teen pregnancy, smaller families and most have decent housing with modern conveniences such as running water, electricity and some luxuries such as tv,
microwave, coffeemaker, frig and stove. So maybe trying to compare Costa Ricas´ tourism industry with Honduras´ is a bit of an action in futility, or perhaps not. If Costa Rica is to maintain its leadership in Central American tourism, then it must address some of the issues
outlined above. If Honduras wants to increase its share of the growing Central American tourism pie, then it must make some serious structural changes.

Tourism development is often a double-edged sword, providing jobs, progress and better living standards but often at a high price - Costa Rica is a case in point.
Honduras, on the other hand, is seeking to jump on the tourism bandwagon: Roatan is developing quickly and the pace of change in Copan, for example, has intensified in recent years. If Honduras is to develop its tourism products, much can be learned from the
Costa Rican model of development. Decisions and actions taken today, or the lack thereof, will influence the direction of Honduran tourism for years to come. Will Honduras become the next Costa Rica, as many would like it to see or will
Honduras find its own way? The jury is still out – only time will tell.