By Dan Ambrose: WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (37-11-2, 25 KO’s) had too much power and heart for former WBO featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez (31-1, 28 KO’s) when the two fighters fought last April in Salido’s impressive 8th round TKO win in Lopez’s home country of Puerto Rico.

Lopez just didn’t have the chin or the stamina to compete with Salido and ended up getting rocked to pieces. Now Lopez has decided he wanted to fight a rematch with Salido to try and get his WBO belt back. It could be a bad decision on Lopez’s part, because Salido really had him figured out and gave him a beating.

Bob Arum, Lopez’s promoter, needs him to win this fight so he can push him forward to bigger fights like Yuriorkis Gamboa. Salido is going to have a lot to say about that, as he plans on giving Lopez another beating and keeping him down in the ranks.

The southpaw Lopez fought well on offense in the Salido fight but the problem he had was on the defensive part of his game. He couldn’t get out of the way of Salido’s right hands. That was the major problem because he was wide open each time.

Lopez’s game is built around his offense and that’s where he’s going to be in danger. With Salido, he does well against guys that attack him and try and slug. Where he has problems is if he’s put in with someone that focuses more on his boxing.

The thing is Lopez can’t change his style of fighting even if he wanted to. He’s going to go out and try and slug it out with Salido and end up getting smashed with right hands like he did last time. I think Salido will knock him out again and keep the judges from rendering a verdict in this fight. That’s the best thing Salido can do, but he won’t have to try for a knockout. Lopez will likely cave in on his own from the right hands he keeps getting nailed with.