Featherweight Orlando Salido (29-9-2, 19 KOs) stopped power-puncher Hector Avila (41-4, 37 KOs) in the sixth round on Friday night at the Cicero Stadium, in Cicero, Illinois, in the International Boxing Federation featherweight eliminator bout. Salido, ranked #3 in the IBF, had little trouble with the knockout artist Avila, dominating ever round of the fight, and knocking Avila down in the 4th and 6th round before referee Pete Podgorski moved in and halted the bout at 1:57 of the sixth round.
Despite the 35 year-old Avila’s impressive record of mostly knockout wins, he had little in the way of handspeed with which to land any of his incredibly slow punches. In the first two rounds, Avila had little opportunity to land anything, as Solido poured in a constant flow of left hooks and right hands to the head and body, making Avila appear like a human punching bag for most of the time.
Avila, however, staggered Solido with a big right hand that landed to the top of his head, but it’s unclear whether he was in fact hurt or not, because it may have been merely the case of Solido being knocked off balance. As it is, Solido continued with his methodical beating of Solido immediately after getting staggered, and finished the round strong with a large string of unanswered left hooks to the body.
In the fourth round, Solido caught Avila with a perfect right hand as he was coming in, knocking him to the canvas. Availa stayed down for several moments, angrily punching the canvas, angry with himself for getting knocked down. In the fifth round, Avila was cut badly over his left eye by two left hands thrown by Solido. In the sixth round, Solido continued raining shots on Avila, who by this time had almost completely stopped punching.
Shortly into the round, Solido landed a perfect left-right combination, sending Avila to the canvas for the final time. The referee quickly moved in and halted the bout with Availa still on the canvas, despite the fact that he didn’t appear all that hurt.
With this win, Solido sets himself up for a bout with IBF featherweight champion Robert Guerrero.