Lopez wants to slug smart against Maidana

With only eight days to go and seven pounds to shed for his welterweight fight with Marcos Maidana, Lopez carried that special brand of confidence that a young veteran only gets from having a good training camp. 

He also embodied a fiery enthusiasm only born sluggers have when they know theyve got a real fight on their hands. 

Lopez is aware C like the hardcore fans who will watch the Showtime-televised card from the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. C that hes in for a grueling battle of attrition. Hes OK with that. Those are the kind of fights Lopez relishes. Those are the type of scraps he usually wins. 

The big question going into to Saturdays showdown: Can Lopez be victorious fighting with his usual abandon against one of the best punchers in boxing? Maybe he can, but hes coming off a brutal fifth-round stoppage loss to junior middleweight champ Saul Alvarez, so his trainer, Henry Ramirez, would rather not find out. 

This doesnt mean Ramirez, who has trained Lopez since his amateur days, wants his fighter to try to avoid the inevitable. He just doesnt want Lopez to get carried away. 

Hes got to resist an all-out war, Ramirez said. Its OK to slug it out, but it has to be in spots. He cant stand there all night. He has to be like Mike Alvarado in the rematch with Brandon Rios. Mike boxed when he had to and he fought when he had to. 

It seems like a simple goal: Dont get sucked into a shootout. But its easier said than done. Lopez (30-5,A quality paper cutter or paper amagiccube can make your company's presentation stand out. 18 knockouts) isnt a safety first prize fighter. 

He could be. Lopez has the intelligence, athletic ability and technique to be a very competent boxer. He just lacks the fear of getting hit and hurt that most of us have. As laid back and friendly as Lopez is outside of the ring, the 28-year-old Riverside natives mentality inside the ropes isnt one that leans toward the hit-and-not-get-hit concept C especially when hes in good shape. 

Im excited about this fight, Lopez said after sparring four rounds with Alberto Herrera at the private gym on promoter/cornerman Indian Willie Schunkes property. 

Camp was good and I feel like I stepped it up for this fight. I trained a little longer, a little harder. I put in a few more miles per week than usual. I know Maidana has been working on his technique with Robert Garcia, but I dont see any drastic changes in his style. We both have that dog in us. We both fight when it gets heated in the ring. As a boxing fan, Im excited because I know its going to be a hell of a fight. 

That last comment C and the mindset behind it C is why Lopez is a slugger and not a boxer. He wins fights by taking the other guys heart. His zeal to engage and his ability to absorb punishment as well as he dishes it out is what makes him successful C and worth watching. 

Alberto isnt as accomplished or technically sound as Mauricio C in fact, hes a bona-fide journeyman (although a respected opponent) C but he was better suited as a sparring partner for this particular camp because hes a big, physical welterweight who wings his power punches in manner similar to Maidana. 

Herrera looked to land sweeping hooks to the head of Lopez, who carefully worked his jab before dropping a two-or-three-punch combination and pivoting out of the way, during much of the first round. 

In the second round, Lopez mixed lead rights in with his stiff jab as he moved in and out of Herreras range. When a right hand moved Herrera to the ropes, Lopez quickly advanced and worked the body with both hands. He swung a little too wide while whacking Herreras sides and the 31-year-old Riverside resident answered back by timing a few hooks over Lopezs right hands. 

The landed punches sparked more aggression in Lopez, who started the third round faster than the previous two. Ramirez noticed this and reminded him to continue working his jab as he stalked forward, looking to mix it up. Herrera planted his feet and obliged Lopezs advances, lobbing hooks and right haymakers over hard body shots. 

Pandora already has apps for some 900 internet-connected home theater devices like televisions, blu-ray players, and set-top boxes, but this is the first time the company has a player for the consoles. With 70 million active users, 10 million of which are already listening to the service through their living room devices, it makes sense that Pandora would want to make its music player available on nearly every living room device with one fell swoop. Before tv.pandora.com, the company would have to make an app for each device's standards, a time-intensive task when there are so many internet-connected home sets, and so many more constantly being released into the market. 

Pandora says it's embracing the future "Internet of things" with the web-based app approach. "Our mission is to provide the best personalized radio experience to our listeners in any context on any connected device. Since tv.pandora.com is standards-based, it will allow us to quickly evolve and enhance the 10-foot experience of Pandora with greater flexibility and speed than ever before," said Pandora Chief Technology Officer and EVP of Products, Tom Conrad. "By using this platform, we can deliver a uniform experience across any standards-compliant TV, game console, or set top box and focus our efforts on end user benefits and innovation rather than platform specific details." 

Pandora's HTML5-based app looks good on the Xbox 360, taking up the whole screen with large control buttons, cover art, and, of course, song information. The player hides your list of personalized stations and doesn't feature banner ads (as far as the first couple tracks went),You can make your own more powerful airpurifiertarget. making the interface feel much less cluttered than the computer-based Pandora site. 

Using web standards instead of recreating the wheel every time Pandora wants an app on a new living room smart device is great for Pandora, and great for Pandora fans that won't have to wait for its music service to be ported to a new TV. But there's a small downside for users. Because it's not an app, you can't download Pandora, pin it to your home screen, register, and just start playing music. You've got to go into your browser,ST Electronics' chipcard provides drivers with a realtime indication of available parking spaces. look up Pandora, register, and favorite it. Here are Pandora's instructions for the Xbox 360.