by Matt Stein: World Boxing Association (WBA) featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (19-0, 15 KO’s) struggled to some extent in beating Mexican Orlando Salido (34-11-2, 22 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Palms Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The final judges’ scores were 116-109, 114-109 and 115-109. Gamboa dominated pretty much the entire fight, and had Salido down twice on the canvas with a flurry of big shots in the 12th round.

However, Gamboa made the mistake of hitting Salido while he was down after the 2nd knockdown in the round and that cost Gamboa a point deduction from referee Joe Cortez. Other than that, the fight was mostly uneventful, as Salido was just too slow and basic to do much against Gamboa. Salido never stopped trying, you have to give him credit for that, but he just didn’t have the hand speed or the talent to really compete with Gamboa. The fight was a mismatch on paper going into the bout, and that’s essentially what it ended up being.

Gamboa dominated the first round with fast punches and was able to get out of the way of Salido’s few shots that he attempted in the round. In the 2nd, Salido had more success, landing some sweeping left hooks and straight hands to the head of Gamboa. However, this was another round where Gamboa’s speed was just too much for the slower Salido. In the 3rd round, Gamboa unleashed a flurry of shots to win the round. In the past, a lot of Gamboa’s opponents would fold up when he would throw flurries like this. However, Salido took Gamboa’s punches quite well and never looked hurt for an instant. It wasn’t good that he was taking the shots, but he didn’t have much choice due to his lack of speed.

In rounds four through six, Gamboa easily won the rounds with his superior speed and work rate. Salido was having problems trying to defend against Gamboa’s blistering fast punches. In the 7th, Gamboa began to look a little cocky, as he fought with his hands down by his waist the entire round and rushed Salido with a furious attack early in the round without even worrying about defense. Gamboa was attacking hard at the end of the round and it looked like he had no respect for Salido. At the start of the 8th, Gamboa continued to attack Salido hard with fast punches.

However, Gamboa was dropped with a right hand from Salido. It seemed more like a flash knock down than a case of Gamboa being hurt. Salido, however, seemed to think that Gamboa was hurt as he opened up with a huge volley of shots and had Gamboa holding on to get him to stop punching. Salido’s brielf period of success ended in the 9th, as Gamboa resumed control of the fight and dominated Salido much as he had before the knockdown in the previous round. in the last minute of the 10th, Gamboa hurt Salido with a hard left hand and punished him with flurry of hard shots to the head. in the 11th round, Gamboa continued with his one-way traffic, pounding Salido with hard shots to the head and landing a lot of punches.

Salido just looked way out of his class and was unable to do much. At the start of the 12th, Gamboa knocked Salido down with a hard left hand. Gamboa continued to throw flurries as he pressed for the knockout. Salido went down for the 2nd time in the round. However, Gamboa made the mistake of hitting Salido with a right hand just after he had hit the canvas. This caused referee Joe Cortez to penalize Gamboa for the foul. It hardly mattered, because Gamboa was well ahead in the fight by then and he wasn’t going to be able to knock Salido out anyway.

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In other action on the card, unbeaten lightweight contender Brando Rios (25-0-1, 18 KO’s) defeated Anthony Peterson (30-1, 20 KO’s) after the 24-year-old Peterson was disqualified in the 7th round after repeatedly hitting Rios with low blows. Peterson was getting dominated in the fight and it looked like he fouled out to prevent getting knocked out. He already been knocked down in the 5th and had lost two points for low blows in the 6th. Peterson was having problems handling Rios’ power shots.

Peterson had done a good job in the 1st round by throwing a lot of fast punches to easily win the round. However, Rios took over the fight in the 2nd round by crowding Peterson and landing hard shots on the inside. Peterson likes to work in close so that he can throw his body shots. But, in this case, it wasn’t a good idea for him to be doing that, because Rios was the much bigger puncher and he was pounding Peterson in close proximity.

Rios continued to crowd and blast away at Peterson in the 3rd and 4th rounds. Rios twice hurt Peterson in the 4th round with big left hooks to the head that staggered Peterson and had him backing up. In the 5th, Peterson came out moving from side to side to try and prevent Rios from landing his heavy shots. At the end of the round, Rios put Peterson down with a left-right combination to the head. Rios continued his domination of Peterson into the 6th round. However, Peterson seemed to have other ideas, as he landed a hard left hand low.

Moments later, Peterson landed another big left uppercut that was clearly low. This time the referee took off 1 point for the low blow. Instead of getting a clue and focusing on throwing to the head, Peterson went right back to his low blows and tagged Rios with another left hand that was low. The referee then stopped the action and took another point away from Peterson. In the 7th round, Rios was totally dominating Peterson with power shots to the head.

Peterson went back to his low blows and tagged Rios with a hard left below the belt. The referee ignored the first low blow in the round, but Peterson went right back to the same area and the same punch, as he threw a hard left that was well low. This time the referee stopped the fight and disqualified Peterson for landing the low blow. At the time of the stoppage, Peterson’s left eye was badly swollen and almost closed. It’s doubtful that he could have fought too much longer with his eye looking like that.