By Dan Ambrose: Having waited too long to match-up Juan Manuel Lopez with Yuriorkis Gamboa because he wanted to let their fight marinate, Bob Arum, their promoter, hasn’t given up entirely on the Gamboa-Lopez fight after Lopez was destroyed by the tough Mexican Orlando Saldido (35-11. 23 KO’s) last weekend in an 8th round TKO loss in Puerto Rico.

Salido pretty well proved that he was the better fighter by punishing the weaker Lopez all fight long with right hands and left hooks, eventually knocking him down in the 5th and stopping him with a flurry of power shots in the 8th. Arum has lost his chance for the big Gamboa-Lopez dream fight, but he hasn’t given up on the fight. In speaking to examiner.com, Arum said “In order to get involved in a Gamboa fight, he’s [Lopez] got to show that he can beat Salido.”

What a quick turnaround for Arum. I wonder if he’ll throw Lopez in with Gamboa as fast as he can after the Lopez-Salido 2 fight for fear that Lopez might get whipped again by someone else. You got to look at it like this: If you have a fighter that has been exposed in the past to have a questionable chin, you can’t afford to keep putting them in with quality fighters without the high risk of them getting beaten. This is why Arum needs to get Lopez in with Gamboa as fast as possible before Lopez gets knocked out again. We saw Lopez hurt and barely survive against Rogers Mtagwa and further hurt by Rafael Marquez and dropped by Bernabe Concepcion.

That should tell Arum that the fruit is rotting on the vine and he needs to get Lopez in with Gamboa before Lopez reaches his expiration date. However, I have a bad feeling about a Lopez-Salido 2 rematch. I think it’s a bad idea. Salido showed that he has Lopez’s number and I’m not buying any of the excuses that are being thrown around about Lopez having marriage problems or that he didn’t train hard enough for the Salido fight. The problem was in the Salido fight that Lopez simply couldn’t handle Salido’s power and pressure and ended up folding. I can’t see the outcome being any different in a rematch because Lopez’s chin will be the same as it was in the 1st fight, if not worse.