Juan Manuel Lopez turns down Diego Magdaleno, still searching for Jan. 19 opponent

Juan Manuel Lopez is still searching for an opponent for January 19, as the former super bantamweight and featherweight world titleholder remains scheduled to take part in an HBO tripleheader from The Theater at Madison Square Garden.

Orlando Salido will face Mikey Garcia in the night's main event, with Gennady Golovkin also in action.

Lopez (31-2, 28 KO) first negotiated for a fight with media rival and fellow Puerto Rican Wilfredo Vazquez Jr, but the two couldn't agree on weight, with Lopez wanting to go no lower than a 128-pound catchweight as he moves up to the super featherweight division, and Vazquez Jr, currently a super bantamweight, refusing to go higher than the featherweight limit of 126.

Now, BoxingScene.com reports that Diego Magdaleno has been turned down by Lopez's team. Magdaleno (23-0, 9 KO) has a fight scheduled for December 7 against veteran Adailton de Jesus, a 35-year-old Brazilian with a decent looking record (30-7, 24 KO), but also a guy who is easily defeated by his less awful opponents.

That fight presumably could have been scrapped if Magdaleno could have landed the fight with Lopez, but that's not going to be the case.

One fighter who says he's ready to take the fight with Lopez is another Puerto Rican, Orlando Cruz, a featherweight who says he'd be happy to fight at a 128-pound catchweight. Cruz (19-2-1, 9 KO) recently made headlines by coming out as a gay man, headlines he's never made for his pro boxing career. While Cruz is a solid fighter, he also has failed pretty conclusively against his tougher opponents, losing to Daniel Ponce De Leon (KO-3) and Cornelius Lock (TKO-5) in 2009-10. The former Olympian has won three straight, though.