By Dan Ambrose: If Vasyl Lomachenko (5-1, 3 KOs) can defeat WBO super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez (29-2-3, 17 KOs) this Saturday night on HBO in their fight at Madison Square Garden’s Theater in New York, Lomachenko’s promoter Bob Arum wants to try and put a rematch together between Lomachenko and contender Orlando Salido.
Lomachenko, 28, lost to Salido two years ago by a close 12 round split decision. Lomachenko has won every fight he’s had since that time, and he’s interested in facing the 35-year-old Salido despite the fact that he came up empty last Saturday night in his title challenge against unbeaten WBC super featherweight champion Francisco “El Bandito” Vargas (23-0-2, 17 KOs) in their fight on HBO from the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
It’s interesting that Lomachenko and the 84-year-old Arum both want Salido next rather than a fight against the unbeaten Vargas. That suggests that they saw Salido as the better fighter of the two last Saturday night. Why would they want to take on Salido with him having fought to draws in his last two fights against Vargas and Rocky Martinez?
Bob Arum tells me with a @vasyllomachenko victory Saturday, target No. 1 will be @siri_salido,” said Lance Pugmire on his Twitter.
Arum will need to come up with a big offer to get Salido and his manager Sean Gibbons to take the fight against Lomachenko, because Gibbons is reportedly interested in matching Salido back with Vargas again. You can bet that HBO will be highly interested in seeing a second fight between those two rather than having Salido fight Lomachenko, who is more of a defensive fighter than a brawler.
Lomachenko is a very good fighter, to be sure. But he’s someone that shies away from getting hit, and that sometimes makes his fights dull to watch. Lomachenko’s match against Gary Russell Jr. is a perfect example of how Lomachenko focuses on his defense a little too much. Lomachenko couldn’t match Russell Jr. for speed, so used movement for the second half of the fight to win a decision. It was boring to watch in comparison to the Vargas-Salido fight.
“Floyd Mayweather said the most important thing in boxing is defense,” Lomachenko said to the latimes.com. “I agree with him. I want to finish my boxing career healthy, and not get hit. The problem when you’re aggressive is that your opponent will land something on you. Mayweather, what he started doing, was work on defense to just win the bouts, not taking the chances and risks. That’s where he went .”
If Lomachenko wants to be an exciting fighter, he needs to forget about his defense and focus on throwing shots and making his fights more entertaining. If you watch Lomachenko’s loss to Salido in 2014, Lomachenko spent most of the fight holding Salido to keep him from throwing his body shots. Salido was the only one making it interesting because Lomachenko was holding nonstop. It’s surprising that the referee didn’t disqualify Lomachenko for his holding because he was doing little else until the 12th round, where he finally let his punches fly.
I cannot see a rematch between Salido and Lomachenko being any different than the first fight. Salido will be the aggressor for sure, and Lomachenko will move, land quick shots, hold and try and avoid getting hit. I think it’s not a good style for Salido unless a referee is working the fight that will take points off from Lomachenko for holding too much.
Arum might be able to get Salido to take the fight with Lomachenko if he’s willing to offer him more money than what he’ll get for the Vargas fight. I’m not why Arum would do that because he’s still got guys like Nicholas Walters that he hasn’t matched Lomachenko up against. That should be Arum’s first priority because he promotes both fighters. He would just need to find a way of paying Walters the money that he wants for the fight. Walters won’t come cheap because he’s an unbeaten former world champion.
I think a better career move for Salido would be for him to take the fight against Vargas next rather than face Lomachenko again, because he’s too old to be chasing Lomachenko around the ring or having to deal with him holding all night long again like he did in their previous fight. Salido can also fight Roman Martinez again even if he loses to Lomachenko. A lot of boxing fans would like to see Salido fight Martinez for a third time because their first two fights were highly exciting.