By Jake Donovan

Ganigan Lopez earned his junior flyweight title the hard way, traveling to the defending champion's home country and securing victory. In theory, his first defense taking place at home should be considered a luxury - only it can be argued that his upcoming challenge is an even tougher task.

Four months after outpointing Yu Kimura on the road in Japan, Lopez (27-6, 17KOs) endures a dangerous challenge versus Philippines Jonathan Taconing. The bout takes place July 2 at Arena Coliseo in Mexico City, Mexico.

The bout will air live on Televisa, supported by former champ Pedro Guevara - who owns a victory over Lopez - in a 10-round battle with Ruben Montoya. The show is designed to match the winners in a future telecast, but the reigning champ is solely focused on the task at hand.

"I know he's coming with all of his might to take my title and bring it home to the Philippines," Lopez told krikya360.com in his insistence that he's not looking past July 2. "I've worked too hard to obtain this title and I'm not going to let anyone stand in the way of enjoying a lenghty reign."

Lopez' aforementioned to Guevara - which will have come exactly 52 weeks from fight night - marked his first crack at a major title. It was also the final successful defense for Guevara, who lost his belt to Kimura via controversial split decision last November in Japan.

Meanwhile, Lopez has won two straight - a bounceback 4th round knockout over Juan Luis Lopez last October before scoring the landslide win over Kimura earlier this year.

The upcoming clash will mark the second career title shot for Taoning (22-2-1, 18KOs), coming up short in a technical decision loss to then-titlist Kompayak Porpramook in their May '12 clash in Thailand. The power puncher from Manila has since scored nine straight knockout wins, including a 10th round stoppage of Ramon Garcia last April in his lone other career trip outside of Philippines.

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of krikya360.com. Follow his shiny new Twitter account: @JakeNDaBox_v2