By Dan Ambrose: In an exciting back and forth fight, former WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (42-12-2, 29 KOs) has to climb up off the deck on three separate occasions to eventually wear down and stop 33-year-old former world title challenger Tersak Kokietgym (53-5-1, 33 KOs) in the 11th round on Saturday night to win the interim WBO super featherweight title at the Auditorio Municipal in Tijuana, BC, Mexico.
Both Salido and Kokietgym hit the deck in the opening round with big power shots. Salido, a notorious slow starter, was then knocked down in the next round in getting put down by a big shot in the 2nd. Salido paid Kokietgym back in the 4th by dropping him. But a round later, Salido was knocked down again. This was the third and final time Salido hit the deck, because after this knockdown he finally get his act together and started punishing Kokietgym with body shots while staying in close.
In the 7th, Salido knocked Kokietgym. It was all Salido from this point with him wearing down Kokietgym with brutal body shots. Kokietgym wasn’t used to fighting guys that throw to the body like Salido, and he had no defense for that kind of attack.
In the 11th, Salido knocked Kokietgym down for the final time. All total, Kokietgym was down 4 times in the fight while Salido was down 3 times. This fight definitely is a strong candidate for fight of the year.
With this win, Salido puts himself back in position to face WBO super featherweight champion Mikey Garcia, who hasn’t fought since last January. There’s no telling when Mikey plans on getting in the ring again due to him having promotional problems. If he stays out of the ring for too long then the World Boxing Organization is going to need to strip him of his title and let Salido fight for the vacant belt against the next highest rated contender.
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