By Dan Ambrose: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum doesn’t see Juan Manuel Lopez’s recent 8th round stoppage loss to Orlando Salido getting in the way of a bout between Lopez and IBF/WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (20-0, 16 KO’s), as long as Lopez can beat Salido in a rematch in 2011.

Speaking with boxingtalk.com, Arum says “If he beats Salido, we’re right on track.”

I disagree with the Lopez vs. Gamboa being right back on track if Arum means that the fight will be what it was previously going to be in terms of generating excitement. With Lopez’s crushing defeat at the hands of Salido, there’s no way the Gamboa-Lopez fight will be as big as it would have been had Arum put them in with each other instead of waiting too long trying to let the fight build. The Gamboa vs. Lopez fight could still be big if Arum waits a while, say a couple of years for boxing fans to forget about how easily Lopez was beaten by Salido.

However, it looks like Arum isn’t going to wait to put Lopez and Gamboa in with each this time and I guess you can’t blame him. Lopez looked vulnerable in his fight with Rogers Mtagwa and was dropped by Bernabe Concepcion and hurt by Rafael Marquuez. And we all saw what Salido did to Lopez. With Lopez showing vulnerabilities, Arum needs to put Lopez in with Gamboa as soon as possible before Lopez gets knocked out again. I don’t see Lopez getting by Salido in a rematch. It will be the final nail in the coffin of the long hoped for Gamboa-Lopez fight.

Arum sees Lopez’s problem in the Salido fight coming from Lopez having a hard time making weight. I don’t see that as the excuse. Lopez just met up with a very good fighter in Salido, who had previously given a better fighter than Lopez, Juan Manuel Marquez, a really tough time in the past. Salido also gave Gamboa a lot of problems in their recent fight. Lopez met up with someone that was stronger than him that could take Lopez’s power shots to put a beating on him. The thing is Salido could take Lopez’s shots but you couldn’t say the same for Lopez. He can dish it out but as we saw against Salido and Mtagwa, Lopez doesn’t do well when he gets hit a lot.